End of year tests have been implemented in the school system for students to reveal what they learned and absorbed the content given to them. This year RRISD implemented new policies on final exam requirements, the three major changes were “Cumulative final exams will no longer be required, final exam exemptions will be eliminated, and finals week bell schedules will be discontinued.” Though this is a positive change and allows students relief of finals stress, it does not eliminate the main problem of too much testing.
This school year alone there have been an unreal amount of grade or school wide tests. This is on top of the required course tests as well as AP testing. Sure, there is an amount of understandable testing but when it has come to this point, it gets questionable. It seems in the last two months of school, there is a new test almost every week.
The additional problem with testing is the constant room relocation. Testers need somewhere to test, taking over classrooms where students usually are. This can cause confusion and tardies adding on an extra amount to travel within the given 5-6 minute passing period. This also includes the library being closed, which is a common study place for students, especially at the end of year for AP tests and final grades to pass classes.
Another obstacle that comes with too much testing is reduced learning time. Rather than students spending time in the classroom actively learning content, they are stuck in a room sitting in silence answering questions to collect data on whether they understand the material given to them. This is more of a problem for students who are in majority different grade level classes, because with only so many students missing from the class, it does not seem logical from the teachers perspective to stop teaching. While one lesson may not seem like it will affect the material comprehension, it does when repeated. Missing one day is enough, but multiple due to testing can affect the understanding of a whole unit.
Though those points do bring factors to why too much testing is, the major one is the stress and anxiety put onto students. Being put into stressful experiences with homework, social skills, extracurricular activities, sports, possibly jobs, and eight hours spent in classrooms everyday, students don’t need that extra stress put on top.
Although this problem has been voiced to the Texas school system and they have taken it into account, the solution has not been handled the way most would compromise with. The STAAR test is what students and parents were concerned about, as it starts at a very young age putting stress on the youth before their mind is barely even developed. The response to this problem was to get rid of the STAAR test, which most wanted but it came with another problem of replacing the test. Instead of getting rid of the test in full, it will be replaced with three shorter tests throughout the year. This is not a solution to the problem as the new test still causes students stress, now not only at the end of the year but throughout it.
