NECAP Testing

With the school year newly in session, it is time for students throughout Vermont and New England to sit down and spend an entire week taking the government mandated NECAP tests. Now for those who may not be familiar with NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program), they are tests that students in all school districts in New England must take in order to receive any federal funding. Schools whose students do miserably are cut off from government money. In a nutshell, and in my opinion, this means that the students and schools that most need money to provide a better education receive a slap in the face for receiving failing or low test scores.

Tests cover the basics: Reading, Math, and Writing. According to the Principal's Guide, tests are broken into three sessions for each topic and each session takes 90 minutes. Children from the third grade up must take the NECAP tests, so in all it comes to six 90-minute sessions to complete the entire NECAP exam. Is it any wonder children dread this test?

In order to properly prepare children for this test, many teachers spend hours teaching the children how to take the test. That's right, focus is pulled from actually teaching school and instead teaching kids to take long, drawn out tests. I have spoken to many teachers that dread the NECAP tests just as much as the students.

Parents who want an idea on what the questions are like are welcome to answer the following questions taken from the sample test. These are fifth grade questions, so it truly is time to find out--Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

Now that you have a better understanding of the NECAP tests. It leads to my frustrations, and I'm sure hundreds of other parents feel the same way.

1. Parents are flooded with letters from the school principal and teachers urging parents to move up bed times and ensure the children are fed a full breakfast on testing days. Apparently research shows that children with a full belly are better prepared. While this may be true, the average parent gets home at 6pm if they are lucky. Dinner has to be cooked and homework must be completed before a child can even think about bed time. Now teachers swear they won't give out homework during NECAP weeks. If this is true, I'd LOVE to know why my son had fifty algebra problems and spelling definitions to write out last night.

2. It is also made general knowledge that the children will NOT be allowed to take bathroom breaks during the testing period. When I was admitted into the hospital for dehydration eight years ago, my doctor told me that a person is really supposed to drink enough so that they are peeing every hour. Test sessions are 90 minutes long during which kids cannot drink or use the toilets, let alone walk around or stretch. I am adamantly against keeping a child sitting on a hard plastic seat for a full 90 minutes before offering them a ten-minute break. Can you say thrombosis?

3. Students experience tremendous amounts of pressure by the school before and during these tests. I remember my son and daughter both coming home from school in tears in 4th grade because their teacher kept telling them that students who didn't score highly were letting their teachers down by not having tried hard enough. The teacher and I had words that year. A child should NOT be pressured by anyone, and for a teacher to make a child feel bad if they don't do well on the NECAP tests is horrifying.

What the government has done to our education system is unforgivable. It is time for them to sit down and take a long hard look at suicide rates and talk to the kids feeling this pressure. Childhood is the only time a person can truly enjoy life and act like a kid. Is it really necessary to take that away from them?