extra-time quelling teacher fears

You do have to deal with that issue (especially since they scan the test so they’ll know the questions to look up).

How absurd is the idea that it’s okay to be different? Or, to give the extra time option to anybody who wanted it (but the price was only getting X pages at a time — perhaps as many as you estimated they could be sure of finsihing)?

You’ll still have the possibility that they can ask their buddies what is on those last pages, too, and then go look things up.

Yet another option is having tests that such tactics are less effective on — short answer/essay type questions that are harder to cram into short term memory so they can be regurgitated in academic bulimia fashion.

For the most part, if any of my students remembered a question on the test and looked up the answers and could still remember the answer when they got back to finish it…. YEEEHAAA! They HAVE learned something! In all my years, if it happened, it wasn’t often enough!

I have explained it this way:
When you have a medical test going to a lab, do you want the person to do it as fast as possible or do you want them to take the time they need to be accurate? What is our ultimate purpose of providing a test, to see how fast somone can get something done, or do we want them to take the time they need to do their best?

In my son’s school, the tests are taken in the Sp. Ed. teacher’s room. The extra time is just tagged onto the end of the class with the test. The child then goes late to the next class, but it’s considered an excused absence, and the Sp. Ed. teacher helps with making up material missed in the next class. It completely avoids the possiblity of cheating. It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to implement in a small school.

KayR

In my home state of Tennessee you go into a special room for tests if you are at a primary school or what have you also. However, if the first post was about a private school, then they should think of figuring out a way for proctoring the tests, you know? I do not feel as though it is terribly logical to have a student who is a youngster with an L.D. or L.D.’s take part of a test and then take the other part later…that really makes no sense at all. Gosh, I am a grown lady at University and that would make my head spin. I think that a private school, for elementary or what have you, well…they shoudl have things figured out a bit better on the test taking front.

Change comes slowly everywhere - you might remind your colleagues that ‘extra time’ is the most standard of accomodations. SATS give extra time, the LSATS give extra time, GREs give extra time. They are ever discussing doing away with ‘extra time’ at SATS and allowing everybody as much time as they need.

Timed tests are recognized to be in no one best’s interest. We time tests because it’s convenient for the test givers - not the test takers. Why must we display our memorized knowledge quickly? Isnt knowledge knowledge?

As to ‘looking up the answers’, if they could look up a good amount of answers that quickly not to mention remembering a good amount of questions, would they need extra time to begin with? ?? How many people can scan a test, remember a fair number of questions and then quick go look up answers? If only they were that motivated…

sometimes we see shadows in corners-
Good luck with this.

merlinjones — actually it’s a lot more complicated than you might think. I guess you haven’t taught in a school setting. There you are with twenty-five or thirty kids in front of you. You have to keep them busy at all times, both as a responsible teacher and to avoid them getting bored and acting up. You are legally and ethically respomsible for their safety.
OK, so little merlin needs extra time to finish her test. She can’t do it in the classroom, you’ve moved on to the next lesson and there’s too much noise and distraction. You certainly can’t make everyone else sit silently while she finishes, impractical and also an improper waste fo the other kids’ time. You can’t just send her off to the library, you are legally and ethically responsible to supervise her, and anyway people are freaked out over cheating. You might try to send her to the special ed teacher or the reading teacher, but then you have to organize this all ahead of time to fit their schedules, if they have time when you plan the test. Besides, if little merlin misses math, which is your next class, she may fall further behind and you don’t want that. You really don’t want to keep her in at lunch, that’s an unfair punishment and in some places illegal.
None of the options are easy and simple and all of them have ramifications.

Victoria,

I totally feel you! I was just really wondering why the private school would not have a room with the proctors and whatnot. Seriously, in private school of all things that should be something that is well thought out. But, this was all what I reckoned I did not mean to get anyone upset. I am way not an educator yet, and the only experience I have for right now is teaching the English portion of the GED and working at a school tutoring youngsters in ESL and volunteering as a literacy tutor. I like this web site because I can learn of modes of teaching as well as my own l.d. (two for the price of one!!) and I did not mean to get you or anyone else upset.

I’m not upset. Sorry if it came across that way. Don’t worry. I’m 70% Scottish and 20% Dutch and a little Irish and other thrown in, and if I get mad and tell you off you will certainly know it!

Haha, you certainly will! :-)

—des

Are there aides or parapro’s available in your building? In our building extra time is a standard accomodation we want to know what the child knows and maybe the next question will jar their memory.

There is a ton of planning that goes into everyone’s school day. But, here in this building study groups are given by para pro’s - which are aware of the testing schedules, who make the time to be available for students who will be testing on that certain day. Everyone makes sacrifices.

In our middle school if tests are not finished they the student has the opportunity to finish them in homeroom, independent study or after school resource room or general education depending upon their accomodations.

As far as having twenty-five kids it is the average in all of our k-4 classrooms. It is something we have to deal with - all of our students do accelerated reader and math, so they always have something they can be working on.