Unfair Expectations in Education: A Downside of Standardized Testing

I think back to when I was in high school and dreaded taking those stupid standardized tests. The Exit Exam, the SAT, the ACT-all of these were on my hate list. And now that I am a teacher, I have to say that my feelings have not changed one bit. The only difference is that now I hate these tests for different reasons. Now I understand why my teachers got so irritable during testing.

One of the things that bothers me most about standardized tests is that they put unfair expectations on the teachers, and when the outcome is not what people want, the teachers are the ones who are blamed. I don't just say this because I am a teacher. It's the truth. The problem is that people outside the education world don't realize everything that goes into the test scores. They don't know about a little thing called "off grade level" testing.
This is when a student takes a standardized test in the eighth grade, but the actual test is designed for a fifth grader.

How are teachers, myself included, supposed to bring a student up four or five grade levels in one year? Like it or not, that is what is expected. And when it doesn't happen, teachers are often treated like they failed to do their jobs. For instance, a student takes the ninth grade EOC (End of Course Exam) and scores a 69. This is one point away from passing. That student's teacher is reprimanded because that student did not pass. However, the fact that the last standardized test that the student took was a fifth grade level test, and that student almost passed a ninth grade test. This means that he/she progressed almost four grade levels in one year, but that teacher is still reprimanded for the "failure".

Don't get me wrong-I love my job. I love my students, and when they succeed, I feel a satisfaction like nothing else. Seeing a student who never thought he could pass get the news that he actually did is one of the best feelings in the world. But just like any other job, there are politics. And the politics of education are extremely slanted. Teachers get the raw end of the deal, no matter how productive they are. There is very little recognition for a job well done and way too many repercussions when the results do not meet up to the "standard."