You read the title right...I don't feel like my four seasons of the year are Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. Spring has been completely taken over by testing, so I'm going to just call it what it is. Don't get me wrong, I knew in taking this job that a large part of was going to be taking up with testing and I'm prepared for it. But I don't think our legislators and even much of the general public realizes how much time and money is spent on high stakes testing.
Testing has taken up the majority of my day in some form or fashion pretty much every day since the beginning of this new semester. We began by running a benchmark session as close to the real test as possible. This involved setting up testing groups, tests, and accomodations - hoping a lot of the leg work would be done before the STAAR test in April.
I essentially moved straight in to TELPAS and preparing for STAAR Saturday. The TELPAS meant I had to take a
test calibration. They can call it what they want, but if I have to answer questions and make a minimum score in order to receive a certificate, then I call it a test. Now I'm just in the waiting phase of TELPAS until all of the writing samples have been completed and turned in. Hopefully it will all go smoothly with no hiccups along the way.
Luckily STAAR Saturday preparation really worked itself out pretty easily, at least the part I can do in advance, because it's already time to begin working on the first round of STAAR testing.
