First Day of School: Your Practice Test program is Already Behind!

First Day of School: Your Practice Test program is Already Behind!

You already have a late start for building your Practice Test strategies.

What? How can you be behind on the first day of school?

Easy! Your Practice Test planning should have started weeks ago.

When you were decorating your room, office, or teaching space (some of you don't have real rooms), you spent too much time worrying about how the learning environment would look on the outside.

But it is the "inside the head" space of your students, and the inside the bubble sheet circles or ovals that really count in this modern, media-driven test craze.

Spend more time planning your Practice Test strategies, and less time on decorating. After all, if you have a principal, administrator or supervisor that is "test-scared" for their job; you have to hold a likewise concern for your job.

Start planning your Practice Test strategy by listing the weeks that you have before the high-stakes test. (These schedules are published already.)

Then, develop a weekly plan for exactly what you will do in your Practice Test efforts.

Do not "slack off" on this. Write everything down, put these items on your calendar. Create "tickler files." Do anything to ensure that you spend time each day furthering your students testable abilities.

A Practice Test is not a one shot deal. It is an every day affair.

Think of your Practice Test obligation as something like "doing the dishes."

What happens if you "slack off for a few days" and don't wash the dishes?

Bad smells are bug magnets. And do you want company to visit and see the mess that your kitchen is in? What do the stacks of messy dishes tell about you.

In the same way, failing in your daily Practice Test chores is like sweeping dirt under the rug.

So get your Practice Test program in place.

And, be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about this blog.

Test Practice

NCLB Rachets up Teaching to the Test Pressure

Teaching to the Test is driven by The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and the is up for renewal.

And while we thing that Teaching to the Test is important, we don't believe that the NCLB has played a beneficial role in educating our children. In fact, the NCLB has created a negative impact on Teaching to the Test efforts.

Here is what really happens:

* Teachers are pressured by principals, so the curriculum focuses upon the high-stakes test

* Students are bored, so the teacher "puts more pressure on the kids"

* Practice Tests are expensive, so teachers buy "Black Line Master" test books at the teacher supply store

* The "Black Line Master" books are not related to the curriculum, but students sit for hours practicing these tests to "get test-taking" skills

* Students are restless, so teachers put more pressure on them

* The pressure that teachers put on students concerning the practice tests causes students to associate "TESTS" with "PAIN."

This cycle is all wrong!

In fact Teaching to the Test should be and can be engaging, fun, exciting, interesting, rewarding and full of solid curricular learning.

What is needed is for teachers to make their own tests for Teaching to the Test. This is easy with your own templates.

We are developing a new template that is based upon state standards, but you can create your own right now with a word processor.

Then, just copy some curriculum materials into the "selection" area, and fill out the questions.

But, there is one other key to Teaching to the Test. That is...

Use all sorts of...

* Engaging

* Hands-on

* Individual or Group

* Learning Projects

* Take Home Assignments

* Debates

* Contests

* Games

to Teach to the Test.

Forcing students to sit quietly and struggle with boring copies of Black Line Master test books is "cruel and unusual punishment," but unfortunately, "business as usual" for an unenlightened Teaching to the Test effort.

Do Teaching to the Test the right way, and your students learn.

And you benefit by building a climate for learning in your classroom.


Tell your friends about our Test Practice Blog.

Test Practice

Practice Tests are Not Evil

The role of the Practice Test does not have to mean stepping out of the K12 curriculum to practice on unrelated materials.

The Practice Test strategy can be to use teacher-made tests that focus upon exactly what you are teaching.

The process is easy, and the opportunities for creative strategies such as group projects, debates, voting on the answers, take-home test, etc.

All you need is a template.

You can find a sample template at:

Test Practice Template

Employing creative Practice Test strategies means that your principal will commend your lesson planning.


Tell your friends about our Practice Test Blog.

Teaching to the Test

Test Practice

Test Practice is a survival skill for both students and teachers.

For students, practicing for tests means graduating, getting a competitive job, being accepted at an outstanding college.

For teachers, practicing for tests means keeping your job, and keeping "off the radar screen" and off the "chopping block" of a worried and over-stressed principal.

Tell your friends about our Test Practice Blog.

Test Practice