School boards put high stakes testing to the test

By Madison Winters

PLATTSBURGH, NY - Across New York State there's a push for a revaluation of the information that is used to evaluate teachers. In a field where the actions of others reflect so heavily on measuring the success of an individual, would changes like these influence and inspire the next generation of educators?

Teachers came out of top during the Plattsburgh City School Boards last meeting. During the meeting board members voted on a new resolution that was presented to the board earlier this month by district taxpayer and parent Christy Bezrutczyk.

The result was a 6-2 vote in favor of the resolution.

The resolution plans to institute a series of changes to emphasize a curriculum rich in all areas of education and advocate for changes to the way students, schools and educators are evaluated.

According to the Press Republican, other action being taken for the resolution include protecting the privacy of student data, eliminate test practice and examining the Common Core curriculum standards to determine if they are developmentally appropriate,

Maryanne Daniels is a 7th grade math teacher and the parent of a Plattsburgh City School District student.

Daniels doesn't teach in Plattsburgh, but is excited that they are taking steps to address the serious issues surrounding the evaluations of teachers.

“Being an educator and hearing this news made me feel great but knowing that my son will experience these changes,” Daniels said. “I can't explain how relieved I am.”

Daniels son Jacob feels frustrated with state tests.

“We take them every year and there's always something that I don't know,” he said. “And I always pay attention in class.”

Jacob thinks that instead of taking tests teachers should let their students run the classroom for a day in order to show how much they've learned.

Being an educator herself, Daniels understands the pressure that educators fall under while trying to comply with the standards put in place by NYS.

According to the www.usny.nysed.gov, educators are evaluated through a series of rubrics.

For example, when measuring a teachers conversational skills the rubrics compares her emotional support, classroom organization and instructional support and then divides that number by 3 and that corresponds to a level of effectiveness.

“Changing the ways that teachers are evaluated could make it easier for teachers to focus less on drilling the kids with information in hopes they will pass,” Daniels said. “Instead, they could help the individual student with a personalized approach.”

Education Student Melanie Sidoti is passionate about her major.

“I chose adolescent education because I feel as though teaching older children that are going through things that are not necessarily easy and maybe even awkward could help me form a good bond with them and give them confidence.” Sidoti said.

Like the majority of educators, Sidoti hopes to inspire her future students to reach their fullest potentials.

“someone to look up to/talk to and teach them information that will benefit them not only towards going to college and their career but information that will help them in their everyday life.” she said.

And again like a vast majority of teachers, Sidoti feels the pressure.

“Some things about my major that scares me are definitely state tests and regents exams.” Sidoti said. “I understand that they are a reflection on me as a teacher and it scares me that some kids care more than others.”

Sidoti thinks it's unreasonable for NYS to expect teachers to meet their standards when the standards and even the tests do not accommodate every student.

“I have to try and accommodate every child's learn ability and really tune into the way they learn (visually, hands on, etc,.).” she said. “it also makes me nervous I will have to deal with many different personalities, issues and differences throughout the classroom and I am going to learn how to approach every child in the best way possible so that they can achieve full potential which will definitely be a challenge.”

Megan Carrigan and Abigail Lemoy are juniors in high school. In June they plan to take the NYS chemistry and Algebra 2/Trigonometry regents exams. Carrigan took her first regents exam at the end of her ninth grade year. Lemoy who previously went to school in Vermont, has never taken a regents exam.

“When I was in ninth grade I remember my older friends saying “enjoy ninth grade because each year gets harder and harder” and of course I didn't believe them.” Carrigan said.

“People have tried to warn me about how hard the tests are,” Lemoy said. “It makes me really nervous.”

When Lemoy lived in Vermont she took their version of state tests. She said that the tests were easy in her opinion because they broke the information down into sections.

“My teacher would spend a couple months teaching us one a chunk of sections and we would build from there,” she said. “Before we moved on she would make up a fake test and if everyone passed we moved on.”

Carrigan said that she struggles with retaining the information that she learns during class and being able to apply it to the tests months later.

“Being used to the format of the test doesn't make it any easier,” she said. “You can have the same question five different ways but if you don't understand how to solve it, you're hopeless.”

Carrigan suggested that the tests should be given on a more regular basis so students would able to focus on a smaller amount of information at one time.

“If we had the tests 3 or 4 times a year it would break the information down into smaller sections,” she said. “It would be easier to remember a few chapters instead of an entire textbook.”

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