Check out our list of tips for preparing your students for standardized tests.
Highlight the importance of standardized tests. Get sure your learners know why they are important and why they have to take them. Whether or not you agree or dis- agree with high-stakes testing, you must act appropriately and professionally. If you do not buy into standardized testing, learners will follow your lead and react the same way. This can translate into lower test scores.
Analyze the data from standardized tests with the learners. Learners are the last to know about the testing results indicate. Utilize this teachable moment to make graphs of their scores, write letters to parents/ about the results, or utilize software or apps to organize the info.
Math standardized tests will not allow learners to use calculators. Have learners make flash cards and review the basics with a partner until they have the facts memorized. Older learners may think this is a waste of time, but the review will help them remember what they often forget with constant calculator use.
Once working on complex math problems, teach learners to narrow down the choices when they are unsure of an answer on a standardized test. Explain how to make the best-educated guess in these situations.
Various assessments, especially standardized tests, have true/false and multiple-choice questions. Instruct learners to read the questions and cross out the answers they know are incorrect if they have to guess the answer.
If allowed, give learners a five-minute warning before a test ends. Ask the administration if you do not hear about whether or not this is allowed in the orientation.
Learners can prepare for standardized tests by memorizing basic rules in skills such as spelling and math.
Remind learners not to read more into the passage than is written and not to debate what is being read. Read the passages with the questions on the test in mind.
Several schools will keep the actual standardized exam under lock and key, and they will not be distributed until the day of the exam. The educator testing manuals might be with the test, so if the principal does not give you the guidebook, request that you have the opportunity to read the instruction manual ahead of time.
All staff should be trained in standardized testing procedures to support consistency in testing administration and learners’ participation. If you do not receive training, ask coworkers about testing procedures and the scheduling of classes during testing periods.
Scheduling for standardized exams will be school wide. The whole building will be on the same schedule for reliability.
Ask the management what the policy is for standardized makeup exams. The school will stress that every learner is in school for standardized testing, but there will be exceptions, and, as the educator, you need to be aware of what to do for your learners who missed the test. There is a time frame for tests to be returned to the company for scoring.
Examinations results for individual learners are private, but group and school reports are public records. Schools must report their exam results to the public via the school newsletter, a public meeting, or the local newspaper.
