I am a parent from District 7. My children attend Apison Elementary and East Hamilton Middle School. I have been frustrated for some time now, with the amount of testing that our school district puts our students through. I streamed the last two school board meetings. In the March meeting the school board made it clear that many parents and teachers in the district have also communicated their concerns and frustrations over the amount of testing our district does.
Students just completed two weeks of TCAP testing. Now, the school district is requiring that our students complete MAP testing for ELA and Math, which takes several days. My daughter is an "A Student." Unfortunately, she has test anxiety. She used to love school. Now, she comes home upset on a daily basis. She hates going to bed at night because it means she has to go to school the next day. She has trouble going to sleep at night because she can't stop worrying about what test she has to take the next day. I have trouble getting her up and ready for school because she hates school.
Our school system is broken, and it is doing its best to break our children. My 10 year old should not have anxiety and stress. If our children are not in a good place mentally, how can they learn and succeed in the classroom?
In the March school board meeting, Dr. Robertson referenced "the data" they gain from the multitude of tests and how valuable that data is to them. I want to know what the data shows about the impact all of this testing has on our children. The 4th grade counselor at Apison created a special counseling group that meets once a week, because there are so many 4th grade students with anxiety. That is not normal.
I have emailed the school board members, the county commissioners, Dr. Robertson, Dr. Stewart, and members of the TNPTA demanding they step up and put an end to all of this testing.
There has been a lot of talk about balancing the school budget. One has to wonder how much money could be saved if we eliminated all of the excessive testing. While it might not completely solve the district's financial problems, it would certainly be a step in the right direction.
The school district is also always stressing how important it is for students to be present at school and in the classroom in order to learn and be successful. Think of how much more our students could learn every year if we didn't waste over a month of school days testing.
I'm emailing your news outlet in the hopes you will follow up with the school district, school board members, and the county commissioners. I feel like if we shed enough light on how broken our school system is, we might start seeing some changes.
Samantha Mowrer
* * *
I completely agree. Let’s not forget benchmark testing three times a year.
My daughter has bad test anxiety, and I don’t believe all these tests are an accurate reflection of her progress through the year. She’s so terrified of not finishing the test that she doesn’t take the time to read the questions/answers completely.
And don’t get me started on 3rd grade retention based off these scores.
Dawn Viljoen
* * *
I want to thank Samantha Mowrer and Dawn Viljoen for courageously voicing what so many parents and educators already know: the volume of testing in our schools has reached a level that is not just unhelpful - it is harmful.
As a longtime educator, I can say with certainty that benchmark tests in particular, have long outlived whatever usefulness they might have once claimed. We are told these tests yield “valuable data,” but let’s be honest about what kind of data we’re getting. Some students try their best. But many, knowing the scores don’t affect their grades, rush through or don’t try at all. Others, like the students these parents describe, are so anxious that the results reflect panic more than performance. The outcome is a jumble of inconsistencies and inaccuracies. How can decisions about curriculum, instruction, or funding be based on data that isn’t even reliable?
What we’re really collecting is not information, it’s noise. And the cost of gathering that noise is tremendous.
It costs students weeks of lost instructional time that could be spent actually learning. It costs the district real money that could be better spent on counselors, nurses and step raises. And it costs teachers their professional dignity and peace of mind. Nothing is more demoralizing than being told to “analyze” results you know are built on a broken foundation.
Teachers do not need more district-wide initiatives. They need trust. Trust to teach. Trust to assess. Trust to know their students as real people, not data points.
It’s time to end this expensive, time-consuming charade and return to what really matters: authentic teaching and learning.
Jeremy Barrett