High School

Having worked at a High School for the past year, I was shocked at the number of end of the year exams some of the kids were required to take. So many AP (Advanced Placement Exams), EOC (End of Course Exams), FCAT, and then the Final Exams in the classes. So many tests!

Makes me want to ask the question again....Are we testing our kids too much? Does it really show what the kids know? What if they happen to have a bad day? What if they are sick the day they are testing? What if they are just bad test takers? Can we really measure how much they know based on all of these tests? Are we sure the kids are being taught what they are being tested on?

So many questions and so few answers.

Are we testing our kids to death?

It seems like we have turned our kids into the test taking generation. Especially in Florida. All we do is test our kids. Gone are the days where teachers were able to actually teach their classes. Now there's the big push for common core, since we are trying to push away from FCAT. Then there are all the EOC exams, meaning End of Course exams. These kids don't stand a chance.

As a result, these kids have lost key critical thinking skills. They can't perform things we once considered basic skills, such as telling time on an analog clock, or counting money, or  signing their names in cursive. It's really sad.