Students are being overworked during keystone testing
May 23, 2016
Dear Editor, the school is going overboard with work during standardized testing.
Many teachers are, on top of being told to give work for the time during testing, for non testers to do they are still having class. And many have decided to also be giving assignments to students during that time, as well as quizzes.
So a student has to-possibly- go through a full week of tests, only to go to a class and take a quiz, continue with lessons and take home work on top of that.
It’s absolutely blasphemous and wrong to be giving students this much work.Ai?? Overworked students have a tendency to do worse, not better.Ai??Now, this is not about standardized testing itself, this is about the fact students are to be given work- by every teacher, during the ‘free’ test time as well as go to class and possibly get even more work.
Homework is already given in way too large of quantities, one can check- and the statistics show “the impact of excessive homework on high schoolers included high stress levels, a lack of balance in children’s lives and physical health problems such as ulcers, migraines, sleep deprivation and weight loss.”[CNN, in health, kids]
Overwork the horse, and the horse falls down dead, run the husky out and he will pull his line until has last breath.
Students may not have the wherewithal to work to this extent, but the lesson is there. Too much work is not good. It’s detrimental.Ai?? Many schools live by the belief that more work is better, some even try to say ‘Our work, keeps kids busy and from doing illegal or otherwise wrong things.” Students who want to will, homework or not, but in both cases homework and over work can drag grades down and stress students to the max. Only so much time exists in a day.
Jayden Paradis • May 21, 2018 at 10:39 PM
I can definitely relate to this. Very well done article.
Jesse Boies • May 25, 2016 at 9:14 AM
This is a very well-written article that brings up a lot of good points, many of which go beyond the simple “overworked during keystones”. While this may not be a problem for some older students that take CP classes and finished the Keystones years ago, it’s a problem that comes in many forms. From early on students had it drilled into them that the PSSAs and Keystones were the most important tests of the year and that the entire curriculum was built around preparing for these tests. This concept was present this year, as I had to take a Keystone test and I had many teachers speaking of the importance of the tests. I took the test and for the rest of the days I had to focus on doing an abnormal amount of homework. The teachers that speak of the importance of these tests, yet assign more homework during testing than any other time in the year, seem to just contradict themselves. I understand that some teachers want us to make up for lost time, but the whole concept of giving us a massive packet that must be done provides a massive distraction to testing students.