This is a "Test"

Believe it of not, I spent the day at the District Office creating math tests. Now, what could be more fun than that? I can think of about a million things......even having a root canal.

It really wasn't that bad. There are just four of us working on district level tests for math and language arts. My job is to create two math tests each for third and fourth grades. One test will be given in November each year, and the other test in March. They should give us a good indication of how are students are doing prior to the end of the year CRT (Criterion Reference Test), which is the test the state gives all students at the end of the year. Creating these tests is mind boggling. Each question must match the state core, you can't have too many correct answers with the same number, the answers must be all mixed up so there isn't a pattern, the questions matching the objectives must be scatter through the test........And you can't use the same question on both tests. It is just really challenging. We know there will be places that need to be fixed after the first time students take the test, so we have to be prepared with more questions to replace or fix the ones that are there. Just a long process.

It makes me appreciate all those people who create tests for a living. But then, they probably don't care how students do on the tests as much as we do because it is our students! I am making this test so I can see if my students are prepared for the "big" test. What if I think they are because they can pass "my" test, but then they blow it on the CRT? Oh, joy.......What a challenge. I think I will go to bed.