The Distraction of Taking High-Pressure Tests in School

I recently attended an open house as my daughter's school when she showed me the test they all take for something about Smarter Balanced Assessments. Basically, it's a series of tests to ensure that the student is at or above grade level in their learning. What it showed me was if a child was capable of taking a high-pressure test with others in the same room. I don't think I could've taken this.

Not just the Yakima Valley, but schools across the countries are taking tests like this. I'm sure there's an underlying notion on why. Maybe it's to see what school funding should go towards or perhaps its a new school measure to make sure teachers are teaching what they're supposed to be teaching, I'm not sure. What I do know is that when I sat down to take the practice test, I had a hard time focusing because it was in the same room as several others, all typing away, making sounds, not exactly sitting still with catches my peripheral vision -- there were a lot of distractions. I can understand why these are hard to take.

The questions were on grade level, but the actual taking of the test was rough. I experienced enough that I saw what my kids saw and got up and left. Fortunately, I didn't need to take the test, but taking this practice test put me right back into school and how hard it must be for children to take these. Especially if kids have ADHD or something that prevents them from doing their best effort.

To my kids, it's just part of school so they take the test because the school tells them to take the test, but now I have a little better understanding of what's on the test and how much of a distraction the surrounding area is when they're taking it.