It’s back. Arriving like a thundercloud, sitting stubbornly over the school, FCAT and AP testing season looms overhead.
All throughout the year, there seems to be an indelible trace of these tests, whether it be from direct contact with them (in class with district-mandated FCAT prep) or from subtle reminders about just how important the tests are.
Though I fully understand why there must be some importance placed on tests, I don’t understand why it should curtail learning. FCAT and AP are extremely different and, having encountered both, I find fault in some of the ways in which we go about leading up to the tests.
FCAT: For a test that in total lasts 2 hours and 45 minutes, the FCAT seems to take up many hours of time in class. Students must practice on interim assessment tests every grading quarter, and leading up to the test, teachers have to gear learning towards what the little FCAT benchmarks prescribe. They must continuously curb valuable information in whatever subject to include what is going to be on the FCAT. Though I understand that practice for the FCAT for some students is necessary to pass the test, it still doesn’t make sense to me why students are being honed into one test that I feel does not serve as a good indicator of whether or not the student has necessary learned the material in their classes that year.
To cover for themselves, fldoe.org, the site that is all FCAT, all the time, issued a “Facts vs. Myths” page to address whether the FCAT actually takes away from normal instruction
The response from the site?
The term “teach to the test” generally means that students are being taught the exact questions on the FCAT. This clearly is not desirable. The larger issue is whether teachers should be teaching Reading, Writing, Science, and Mathematics as defined in the Sunshine State Standards, and the answer, most affirmatively, is “Yes.”
A non-answer answer at its best. The FCAT producers even seem to understand that the test does cut into the time teachers should be using to teach subjects, not testing strategies.
AP: These challenging college level courses were created to provide classes for students who are willing to take on a difficult course load while learning interesting topics not normally provided by the traditional high school class. Ranging from Art History to Japanese, AP classes are supposed to encourage in-depth study of interesting topics. However, as a report in the San Diego Newspaper said, “In the last 10 years, Advanced Placement has become a game of labels and numbers, a public relations ploy used by school officials who are dumping as many students as they can into AP courses to create the illusion that they are raising overall standards… and in the process, Advanced Placement has become the College Board’s cash cow as each year tens of thousands more students – or their school boards fork over an $86 fee for each exam.”
In summary, AP classes have become a game, with the prize going to who can memorize the most by May 2. Students are rushed through curricula that would actually provide them with a holistic understanding of whatever they are studying, and are not allowed to truly immerse themselves in their studies.
