Who Do Alternative and Standards of Learning Assessments Benefit?

As a teacher I believe that assessments are an important part of the learning process. There must be an educational goal to work towards and achieve. An assessment is a great way to evaluate what a student has learned as well as give the teacher some sort of structure.

The issues is that some teachers only teach to the test or are required to give an alternative assessment that does not reflect the knowledge of the student.  An alternative assessment is suppose to exhibit the students knowledge in a nontraditional format, traditional being multiple choice. Instead these test consume much of the teachers time and does not benefit the student. It is literally worksheet after after worksheet being forced down their throats.

This process is very frustrating for many teachers because they see the needs of their students but cannot ignore the test.  The needs of the students often fall to the waist-side. There are many days when there is no teaching going on in a classroom at all and students are reduced to busywork.

There is much pressure on teachers to complete and pass these assessments at all cost. These assessments are part of the school's report card and can reflect negatively on the school and/or the school district.

There are so many ways that we could engage our children in learning if this "at all cost" assessment process was eliminated or tweak. We must get back to teaching and giving our students life skills that will benefit well beyond the classroom.