Tests and More Tests

I don't know if you feel this way, but sometimes I think we spend way too much time (and money) testing students.  I get that it is important to know where our students are academically and what our next instructional steps should be.  But sometimes it is just too much.

We had just taken our formative math test and because of schedules there was really not much time to review concepts before it was time to take the summative test.  I clearly knew some of my students were not ready. Guess what?  They knew it too.  As I was passing out the tests one of my students said, "I am not ready to take this test!  Do I have to take it today?"  Well. . . I thought to myself.  What would be the purpose in that?

So what did I do? I passed out the test to the students who had made 80 or above on the formative so they could begin.  Then I had a discussion with the students who felt they were not ready.  We talked about what would they do between now and a couple of days from now.  Some said they wanted to watch some of the videos again.  Off they went.  I reviewed some more with the others.  We talked about their plan to review some more over the weekend.  I also posted a "review video" on Edmodo for them to watch.  Will it make a difference?  Only time will tell.