Motive, Motivate, Motivating, Motivation

mo·tive

ˈmōdiv/

noun

1. 1.

   a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious.

mo·ti·vate

ˈmōdəˌvāt/

verb

1. provide (someone) with a motive for doing something.
2. mo·ti·vat·ing
3. ˈmōdəˌvāt,iNG
4. present participle of motivate

mo·ti·va·tion

ˌmōdəˈvāSH(ə)n/

noun

1. the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.

...

This is an open letter to my students, their parents, my peers, and my administrators. Come to think of it--- all my posts are, but this one is more pointedly directed to my community. The students and their stakeholders. 

Standardized testing has always been a part of my world. As a student, I took the Iowa exams every fall. In high school, I took the PSAT and SAT to gain admission into college. To enter graduate school, I had to take the MAT.

Standardized testing is not new.

What is new is what is at stake. Our schools, our districts, our teachers are measured by the performance of our students on these state tests. Some misunderstand the focus of these measurements. When the No Child Left Behind mandate began, districts were measured by how many students performed advanced, proficient, basic, or below basic on these exams. That is still part of the measurement, but our students are also tracked for showing a year's growth or improvement on these same tests.

Many worry, myself included, that we are testing these kids to death. We give them standardized testing periodically to get a sense of whether the students are improving before the "big dance" in the early spring. Our students are quite capable. There are many distinguished educators in our building, and our district who grow our students. We know it through anecdotal proof  in discussions with our students, marked improvement from quiz to test time, and we know it from student testimonials. The problem is the state test is the big dance and we have to prove it there.

How do we get there besides a re-alligned curriculum,  continuous training and improvement of our teaching, and constantly telling our students how important these test scores are to our building, district, and teachers? I think a key component needs some work.

 We have to provide students with a motive, to motivate them, so they find the test motivating to show their best work,  so that their scores reward their motivation. Some years I get a majority students with an attitude of "What's in it for me?" This attitude isn't just about the standardized tests, it's about class in general.  Good teachers know how to generate a desire to learn in their classrooms and how to  inspire their students to perform at high levels. These objective state tests are a different animal.

I don't have the answers and that concerns me. I do know that I want to see an attitude, during the testing in all our classrooms, from our students  where students are not annoyed or intimidated by the tests.  I'd like to see and overhear students taking on the same competitive attitude they do to the tests and quizzes we give them.  Something along the lines of  "I'm going to Ace this!" or "So those other districts think they're stronger than me--- watch this!"

This has to be the atmosphere of our teams and our building. Our students are awesome. They are being prepared but their attitude has to be not only "Yes, I Can!" it also has to be "Look at what I can do." How do we get there from here?

Our team is asking that very question of our students in a survey during Intervention period.

Stay tuned.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.