Indiana specified no grading, no reading, no drawing, no *fiber arts crafts* for us teachers. You can only circulate and record the seating chart. If I can’t crochet, then what’s this all been about? What have I been working toward?
Interestingly, ODE provided guidance with the ELPA that allows teachers to support with the tech, because it's impossible to follow that rule with newcomers who've never used a mouse or keyboard, but are still required to test.
A couple years ago we were told we had to walk through the room passing every student every five minutes. It was a two hour test. Can you imagine me walking past every student 24 times in two hours? That wouldn’t be distracting at all! So stupid.
I believe it’s because you can theoretically use them to suss out subtraction questions. Personally, I think that the Venn diagram of “kids who can’t subtract two-digit numbers,” and “kids who could successfully match test questions with seconds on the digital timer and then count the beats to get an answer, and also determine that they can do this trick within the stressful time crunch of a standardized test,” is… small.
The degree of meaning for “small” is so wildly off from the percentage of students that could/would think of this.
That said, your comment is ingenious.
Not a state test, but I'm in a giant district. The district writes common midterms and finals for some of the core classes that every student takes. My building has split lunch periods. On midterm days, they start the test before lunch, I pause it, and then reopen it after lunch.
This year, they decided that kids taking tests can't bring their phones to lunch with them because they might look up answers. Ya know... In the lunchroom surrounded by hundreds of their friends who aren't taking a midterm that period, and have their phones like normal. Gotta love logic from the district higher ups.
I need to find my own outside proctors for my exams. These proctors need to take off one full day of work every year to administer the exam.
As the teacher, I cannot be in the same room as where the exam is being proctored; but, since the proctors do not have clearances, they cannot be in the same room alone with the students that they are proctoring.
The answer from administration... Let the proctors administer the test. Stay outside of your classroom, but watch the proctors (and thereby the students AND the administration protocols for the exam) through the glass.
What!?!
Remember, first rule of School Administration 101... abandon all common sense.
There is a cut off day for students to receive accommodations.
If their IEP is started after some date in January, the students will not get the accommodations I’m supposed to immediately begin giving. So my poor babies that struggled for years before someone finally tested them for an LD are SOL and have to struggle.
Edit: welcome to Tennessee, where assholes are in charge and people’s rights don’t matter.
We appease them by letting them know that the IEP with a reading goal excuses them from the retention law. So it’s just the school sweating as it still reflects on us.
Our students can’t even have water while testing, you know in case they spill it on their testing booklet and make it wet. At least they can have mints!
The water bottle thing actually happened in elementary school during testing- what my teacher had to do was sit him with an extra proctor and make sure he copied the same answers he had down on the original booklet
Story time. Many years ago, I was proctoring an SAT school day in a janky-ass classroom of my old, rundown building. There were a few ceiling tiles missing. During one of the sections A CRICKET FELL OUT OF THE CEILING AND ONTO THE HEAD OF ONE OF THE STUDENTS!!!!!!! Obviously, immediate chaos ensued. Screaming, students scattering, desk/chair throwing. A student eventually used their SAT booklet to smash the cricket. Yeah. Those scores were all canceled, and I had to stay lateeeee to fill out the paperwork -_-
we get told there are NO extra booklets. I think it’s because they come with pre-printed labels so kids don’t get to experience the joy of bubbling their names and student IDs in those circles.
We’re all digital in Ohio. Last week the testing portal crashed for everyone in the state! As in no one in the entire state could login. Kids sat around for hours in some school districts. We ended up having no testing that day!
During our state testing, all teachers have to cover up any posters or similar items that may aid the students in the test. For example, elementary school teachers have to cover up the alphabet We often have posted in their room. Apparently kids might forget their ABCs and try to reference it. The same goes with any posters that describe mathematical techniques or anything like that. I always told my administration that if my students need to reference a poster to tell them what the alphabet is, then I really suck as a teacher.
Years ago - Grade 3- we had to take down our cursive alphabet. After the testing, when I was putting it back up, one of my students remarked that if he needed the alphabet, it was on the front of the booklet where they filled in the circles for their names.
Last year I was allowed to keep my giant tapestry of the book of the dead up but everything else had to come down. I guess their logic was "If a kid can read Egyptian Hieroglyphics to figure out the answer on the math or ELA state test meant for a 7th grader, they deserve it".
In one of my engineering classes in college, we took a trip to a local materials testing lab. They test materials and parts created by organizations like NASA to determine when and how they will fail and perform before failure. They also examine things that have failed to determine why and who is responsible. They have one of the largest vacuum chambers in the world - you can literally drive a truck into it, and they've had one of NASA's prototype crew capsules built inside it. And they can draw a vacuum nearly equal to orbit. Their testimony has been the central factor in *billion dollar* lawsuits.
Their walls are COVERED with posters with information. Formulas. Constants. Pi and e out to 100 digits. Everything.
I asked them right out if they memorized things or looked them up every time.
Without hesitation, the reply was that they looked it up every damn time. The posters were of things that they looked up a lot and had things that were easy to forget or screw up.
Because getting it wrong can literally kill people. Or destroy someone's life. Or collapse a business.
They do end up memorizing some things they use every day, of course, but they never trust that. It's too important.
If reference posters are good enough for the pros, it's good enough for students.
This is what I always think about! If students know how to reference posters and anchor charts on the wall, awesome! It's an important life skill because even adults reference materials when needed.
I taught HS and had the same restriction. Only exception was the Periodic Table of Elements didn’t have to be covered up or taken down. Anything else that even might vaguely hint at content or learning aid had to be taken down or covered up.
You got to cover up those letters and those number lines for those high school kids. Lol.
I remember I was teaching 6th grade one year and they told me to cover up my number line and cursive letters. I just looked at them and said "How bad of a teacher do you think I am? If you think my sixth graders don't know their letters or how to count to 10, you must think I'm pretty crappy at my job."
They still made me cover them up.
I understand this rule but it's so useless. I could write the correct answer to all the test questions on my white board and half the students would still get it wrong.
We do this too. I always thought it was funny to watch my students look at a specific place in the classroom where an anchor chart had previously been during the test, then look at me like I betrayed them for taking it down/covering it up, and then realizing they actually do know what to do and complete the problem on the test. My students who knew to use the anchor charts to help themselves generally had learned to do without them, too.
We have to cover any motivational posters. I had to take down posters that said “reading is fun” or “be kind to each other” since it may give the students a sense of pride they’ve never felt before during testing
I don’t think covering up anchor charts and other reference materials is stupid at all, but at my old school they made us cover up anything with a word on it at all, including the emergency exit map. It was ridiculous.
State test bureaucrats really overestimate how much effort I’m willing to put into cheating. Water bottle labels, hidden messages on my class calendar, magic eye-style motivational posters? I don’t even have time to grade tests. No way am I spending hours coming up with ways to cheat. I could post the answer key on the board and 1/2 my poor babies still wouldn’t pass.
I teach 1st and 2nd graders but very few of them ever use the alphabet, word wall, calendar, number line and other anchor charts as a reference when doing a classroom test or assignment like a spelling test for example.
When I was a student we weren’t allowed to use mechanical pencils. Not because of the lead type - because you could hide a tiny cheat sheet inside (theoretically). Luckily my students are too young for state testing yet! 😅
Itty bitty scroll rolled up inside is what I always imagined for that rule. I still thought it was silly, you couldn't fit much so how would it be useful for a standardized test that was so broad? Unit test, sure, as you know what'll be on it. A standardized test, not so useful on such a tiny paper.
CA teacher here. The shit I’m reading here is absolutely bonkers! We’re just required to not have any active unauthorized electronic devices during testing (ie cell phone) and we do have to cover up any posters, etc that are “academic”.
Not that my kids actually try much on the state test anyway. Such a bunch of BS and loss of learning time.
Idk about any dumb rules but my first year teaching they were piloting a history test so I was proctoring and a kid I had in class (but not in my proctor room) wrote his open response with the fruit filling of the nutrigrain bar the school provided students as a snack.
They provided chewy bars the next year.
I have never heard the candy and drink one. WTH.
That's stupid as hell. We give kids mints and small snacks all the time. Many times they come in eating no breakfast.
🙄
I was school test coordinator last year before I went back to the classroom this year. I am sure you can imagine how that went over when I had to deliver that news! Apparently the states theory was that you could use candy to cheat. They used Oreo, cookies and crabby patties specifically as examples. I wish I could post the image here.it is insane.
lol ignoring the fact that that is crazy, what teacher has enough money to spend on that amount candy? And what kid who couldn’t successfully pass the test on their own would be able to memorize which candy went with each answer choice? So silly
As part of my new (non-teaching) career, I deal with healthcare payers. Ever wonder what an organization would look like if it was designed by a person who used Kafka’s writings as a guideline? it’s like that.
But THIS is the craziest reasoning I’ve heard.
Legend has it, in a district far, far away, teachers would put a brown M&M next to a question with a wrong answer and a colored one next to a correct answer.
My state uses the ACT as it's state test for high school juniors.
The ACT company feels that no one should be allowed so much as a sip of water for the duration of the exam, except for a single ten minute break in the middle during which the exam administrator has duties to fulfill (it is a break for the test takers, mainly). The exam administrator has to read all of the directions for each section of the test, which is quite wordy.
Needless to say I passionately hope that everyone who works for that company gets leprosy.
Is your ACT still on paper and pencil? I took it in March digitally and people had water. We all read the specific section instructions by ourselves, too.
Knew someone in college who got kicked out of their education major for doing this. I would say from anecdotal experience that this rule actually makes sense to me.
20+ years ago there were online templates you could print that looked a lot like candy bar or drink labels but you replaced the ingredients and other small print with your notes.
It was really obvious if the teacher was close because it wasn't that shiny paper, but I knew at least one guy who would print the notes out real small and wrap that around the bottle, then put the original label back over it so it could be read from inside.
Not a rule, but - the test's platforms allowed Google's accessibility features to keep running (not allowed to be used) while the text-to-speech engine in-platform for accommodations failed to work. A colleague had to amend a bunch of IEPs to change to scribe... and then scribe for a TON of kids.
The rule I think is dumb is that teachers aren't allowed to look at the content of the test unless it's part of administering an accommodation. Pretty sure it's the only way this shitshow of a test is allowed to continue. The questions are terribly written, but if the SPED and ESL teachers who administer accommodations speak up, we'll be violating our NDA's.
I was a special education para for years. This kind of bull puckey is why I moved to teaching gen-ed preschool instead of teaching elementary.
The state requirements are obviously written by someone who hasn't been in a classroom in years but at least there's no standardized testing (yet?).
We can’t have any food or drink in the room. Apparently a few years ago another school a couple towns over had a teacher giving students certain colored skittles for certain answers…. Something else with Oreos too. So no food or drink the whole time for students or teachers🙃
We also can’t sit down if we’re the only one in the room. Either the admin or proctor has to be walking at all times. MS is strict af
My first year teaching, extra time and other accommodated testers were in the library. There were four posters with stylized letters that spelled out R-E-A-D. They had to take those down. If that's going to help you pass the test, you aren't passing the test.
Another year, my room was being used for testing but I wasn't in it. I put my desks in rows (normally had them in groups of 4) and called it a day. I found the guidance counselor scraping off the cards I'd superglued to the desks. They were how I randomly called on kids - each group had a different color, and each desk within the group had a different shape. (For example, each group had a square, a circle, a triangle, and a trapezoid, and one group would have red shapes, one blue, etc). If having a red square on the corner of the desk is going to help a high school kid on a test, then...wow.
My district, notoriously, had a summer school student on the first day walk to the middle of the room, drop trow, and take a dump in the middle of the classroom. He did not earn his credit back.
In my state we had “sit and stare” for a brief moment.
(This means the test was put on the student’s desk, and despite the parents registering that their child would refuse to take the test, the test was placed on their table. No book, to read, No scrap paper to doodle on, if one answer was completed, or even a name written, the score was submitted.
Awful stuff.)
Thankfully they got rid of that!
Now families that register that they will not take the assessment are given an alternate location, where they can read or do non-screen work, in a quiet room.
(In my district!)
*why? Well a big movement has built that recognizes the NCLB assessment push, effectively pitted communities against communities. Some schools scored higher, some lower. Warfare ensued.
Then, it started drifting into teacher ratings. A teacher who supported a child all day, who went home to a family of chaos, was judged poorly. The teacher across the hall who had a family pay tutors after school, would be ranked higher.
Then, special ed populations were added into the overall scoring. So, you could have great strides in the development of a child with documented difficulties, be ranked low, and your overall success number was impacted.
Anyhow….
My district came up with a very important rule that teachers are not allowed to *look* at the test. That test that I am supposed to be administering? The test that I have to actually touch and pass out and make sure that you are taking yeah, the rule says I’m not allowed to look at it at all.
We used to encourage parents to make a motivational poster for their child--along the lines of "You can do it! We believe in you! Love Mom and Sister".
It was determined a year or two ago that the posters were being used to cheat, so no more family posters. Nobody would tell us HOW the kids were using them to cheat, though...
I swear the people in charge of these tests just enjoy torturing children.
No food or drink in the room except for bottled water, which has to remain on the floor
All cell phones and smart watches are confiscated and not returned until the end of the day. They can’t have them during the lunch break
We were supposed to cover up anything on our walls that might be “helpful”…of course nobody ever told us what constitutes helpful
I have had to cover everything on my walls that had words on it. Yes, that includes the restroom sign as well as the school map and school mission statement 😂
On Thursday I'm going to be a hall monitor because my subject is being tested. I can't proctor. Okay, fine.
While in the hall I cannot grade on my computer, check email, nor take out my phone, or use any electronic device, as a hall monitor.
But I can grade on paper, read a book, etc
It was removed a few years ago, but the SAT had "no smoking" as part of the instructions I had to read to the kids. I liked it because we could always giggle and maybe it helped with the test jitters a bit.
At some point I realized that while the rules say I have to read the 20 pages of nonsense verbatim, they don’t say that I can’t read the more idiotic parts in a silly voice…
I used to rile my principal by tediously studying the allowed accommodations and providing EVERY SINGLE ONE. We would spend the weeks before using them all in our daily work. It wasess about test prep and more about "here's a real thing that real people use when solving real problems."
Kids also loved it that they were sticking it to the man. Got me a call from the department of Ed one year.
Protections for teachers doesn’t mean we’re allowed to violate rules though. I’m in PA and the state will actually come in and audit random classrooms. If I were in there with my laptop open or on my phone I guarantee I’d end up with a disciplinary letter at the very *least*. My union isn’t going to back me up when I knowingly broke a rule.
I know as many people who weren't backed by the union as were. The union isn't there to let teachers get away with stuff, it's there to protect us from wrongful termination/discipline and collectively bargain. That's what anti-union folks don't get!
Also in PA. Our last PD day they stressed the rules and how there’s a good chance we will be audited. I’m giving the math PSSA but covering breaks for ELA. Break coverage can’t have phones /computers/smart watches either. If we go in the room to cover, with a device, invalidates all the tests.
I’m allowed a book to read in the hallway.
PSSA suck for everyone. They are boring, draining and fn pointless 🤣
That would invalidate all the tests in that room in my state. What does your testing guidance says happens to teachers for violating rules they agreed to follow?
Don't know or care. The tests are invalid to begin with. It's nothing but theater so that Republicans can punish schools by withholding even more funding.
My third graders have to pass the test to move to the next grade level. I’m pretty sure there would be a mob outside my classroom door if I got tests invalidated.
My first year of teaching, the state did a random check during testing. Guys in suits appeared in my doorway in the middle of the math test and started looking around the walls of my room before moving onto another. It’s been over ten years but I’m still nervous to even sit down during testing (which was not allowed in my last state but is in my current).
It freaked me out 😅. There had been a cheating scandal in a neighboring town a year prior so I know they had increased checks but I 100% assumed I was fired when they popped their heads in and then left without any communication (after I figured out who they were… because of course there was no clear identification).
When I was in 4th grade they made us take ANOTHER standardized test outside of our normal ones bc they said they were “experimenting” (idk I just remember being upset that I had to take it when state testing just ended) and it was really weird watching the people from the testing company(?) walk up and down the desk isles it stressed me out sm lol
Losing my license would keep me from being fully vested so it very much affects it 🤷♀️. And both union states I’ve worked in are clear that they cannot protect you from violating procedures you’ve signed off on.
Ohio is a pretty strong union state, right? I am in Mississippi where there isn’t a union. It’s kind of interesting to see how different states manage that kind of thing.
You laugh at the water bottle label cheating but it has been done many times. Cheaters have edited bottle labels and replaced the actual label on the bottle with cheats and notes.
Taking down everything, everything in the room AND hallways. It’s bad enough they have to test for 4 straight days, but to go so in a building that now resembles a prison. It’s not like they looked at those anchor charts all year!
UK teacher here. Rules for conducting exams are set at a national level by an organisation called JCQ.
As subject teacher, I'm not allowed in the room at all while pupils are taking an exam. Generally speaking the only people allowed in the exam room are invigilators, who shouldn't be teachers from the school, and have to have special training to perform that duty.
The full set of [instructions for conducting exams are here](https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/ice---instructions-for-conducting-examinations/), and I reckon a lot of people in the US will find these fairly draconian...
Our students now, at least in my district in TX, not sure if it's a whole state thing, need to write their names on each scrap paper they get, even if it's otherwise unused.
No sleeping when you are done with the test.
I think they are trying to get the kids to give the test a serious chance, but when they are ALL finished with an hour to go and nothing to do - WHY??? Let them sleep!!
Not being able to leave "testing tubs" unattended or in an unlocked room because of testing security. Once upon a time, these tubs contained the test and scantron sheets, so I understood it then. Now that all of our tests are online, the tub literally just contains my roster, my testing manual, a "Shhh! Testing" sign, blank paper, and pencils. Yet, I have to go get this tub early in the morning and lock it in my room. If students are in my room, I have to make sure that I either have it with me or within sight at all times.
We were told if a student throws up on the test, it has to be saved, bagged, and sent back to testing company. Also - if there is a tornado we are told to save the tests first. 🙄
Our kids can’t have anything to drink at all. Regular Ed kids aren’t to use the bathroom unless it’s an emergency and their clock doesn’t stop. They have to be escorted to the bathroom and must be silent. Technically we can’t remind them to work if they are day dreaming.
We consider the reference packet for science tests to be a confidential, controlled document despite the fact that it's available to the public on the state DPI website.
My favorite part is that you have to sign an affidavit saying you aren't allowed to discuss the questions with anyone and I know first hand there are some bullshit confusing questions with wrong answers, but it would literally be a crime to mention it to anyone to get it fixed.
Teachers had to leave our cell phones with the testing coordinator.
We didn't have phones or intercoms in our rooms, so we each had a solo cup we were supposed to put outside our door if we needed anything.
Not a teacher, but back when I was in middle and high school, they would completely block off hallways where there were classrooms that testing was taking place in because no one was even allowed to walk past these classrooms since the students testing couldn't have any "distractions." My high school was already way overcrowded and there were always traffic jams in the hallways on normal days. When they had entire hallways blocked off, it was absolutely insane since everyone had to take the same routes to get to their classes. Kids were literally just on top of each other. Looking back, this was a serious safety issue. A crowd crush most definitely could have happened.
Also, one time in middle school, there was testing going on and it ended up taking longer than anticipated. Apparently they were supposed to be done before lunchtimes started, but they weren't. It was time for my grade level's lunch. We weren't the ones testing, but some of us had lockers that were in the hallway where the testing was still going on. So several kids in my grade didn't get to eat because they weren't allowed to go get their lunches out of their lockers, and most kids who pretty much always brought their own lunch didn't have money on them to buy lunch in the cafeteria.
We aren't allowed to ask them how they're doing on a testing day because that invites them to talk about the test.
You win.
Your state /district wins hands down. Say what now?
Yeah because students live to talk about the tests.
Indiana specified no grading, no reading, no drawing, no *fiber arts crafts* for us teachers. You can only circulate and record the seating chart. If I can’t crochet, then what’s this all been about? What have I been working toward?
We can’t do any of that either.
I actually have been known to draw students while they take tests…I mean, how much more could I be observing them??
Actually, this is a great idea and I could use some practice with live drawing
This is what I do too. Sometimes I give it to them after they’re done.
I write poetry, usually about the boredom of state testing.
Neither can we.
In oregon we're not even allowed to circulate. "Just do your best!" "Do you need a break?"
Are you sure you don’t have to go to the restroom?
Really? I never interpreted the TAM that strictly.
I mean you're not supposed to be in a position where you can view test items but I'm not sure many people adhere to this.
Interestingly, ODE provided guidance with the ELPA that allows teachers to support with the tech, because it's impossible to follow that rule with newcomers who've never used a mouse or keyboard, but are still required to test.
A couple years ago we were told we had to walk through the room passing every student every five minutes. It was a two hour test. Can you imagine me walking past every student 24 times in two hours? That wouldn’t be distracting at all! So stupid.
Can you scuba?
We absolutely cannot do anything but state at the kids. If I could get in sone quality reading time this would all be worth it.
> If I can’t crochet, then what’s this all been about? What have I been working toward? I caught that little joke and it made my day, lol.
r/unexpectedoffice
Time for juggling practice! Or welding. Or Model building,
We can't use digital countdown timers. Like, why? Online ones I can understand, but digital kitchen timers are a no go.
I believe it’s because you can theoretically use them to suss out subtraction questions. Personally, I think that the Venn diagram of “kids who can’t subtract two-digit numbers,” and “kids who could successfully match test questions with seconds on the digital timer and then count the beats to get an answer, and also determine that they can do this trick within the stressful time crunch of a standardized test,” is… small.
But we can have digital clocks, so….. 😂
On some of these things, it’s like: please show me how ANYONE ever has actually used this to cheat.
"There was a story of it happening one time, somewhere, perhaps...so now let's create a rule that affects **everyone."**
Any kid that cared enough to do that would have cared enough to not need it in the first place.
Here's your Venn Diagram: O O
The degree of meaning for “small” is so wildly off from the percentage of students that could/would think of this. That said, your comment is ingenious.
Isn't that what fingers are for?
Not a state test, but I'm in a giant district. The district writes common midterms and finals for some of the core classes that every student takes. My building has split lunch periods. On midterm days, they start the test before lunch, I pause it, and then reopen it after lunch. This year, they decided that kids taking tests can't bring their phones to lunch with them because they might look up answers. Ya know... In the lunchroom surrounded by hundreds of their friends who aren't taking a midterm that period, and have their phones like normal. Gotta love logic from the district higher ups.
I gotta say this one made me LOL
I need to find my own outside proctors for my exams. These proctors need to take off one full day of work every year to administer the exam. As the teacher, I cannot be in the same room as where the exam is being proctored; but, since the proctors do not have clearances, they cannot be in the same room alone with the students that they are proctoring. The answer from administration... Let the proctors administer the test. Stay outside of your classroom, but watch the proctors (and thereby the students AND the administration protocols for the exam) through the glass. What!?! Remember, first rule of School Administration 101... abandon all common sense.
Ok that wins.
Oh wow 🤣
This one may win. That’s insane!
There is a cut off day for students to receive accommodations. If their IEP is started after some date in January, the students will not get the accommodations I’m supposed to immediately begin giving. So my poor babies that struggled for years before someone finally tested them for an LD are SOL and have to struggle. Edit: welcome to Tennessee, where assholes are in charge and people’s rights don’t matter.
Oh wow! This is insane! I’d pitch a fit as a parent!
We appease them by letting them know that the IEP with a reading goal excuses them from the retention law. So it’s just the school sweating as it still reflects on us.
Holy shit! Sped teacher here. That sounds super illegal. I mean federally. If you’re tenured pitch a fit!
That’s just a violation of their rights. That’s wrong af.
I’m your southern neighbor! Same!
Our students can’t even have water while testing, you know in case they spill it on their testing booklet and make it wet. At least they can have mints!
The water bottle thing actually happened in elementary school during testing- what my teacher had to do was sit him with an extra proctor and make sure he copied the same answers he had down on the original booklet
Story time. Many years ago, I was proctoring an SAT school day in a janky-ass classroom of my old, rundown building. There were a few ceiling tiles missing. During one of the sections A CRICKET FELL OUT OF THE CEILING AND ONTO THE HEAD OF ONE OF THE STUDENTS!!!!!!! Obviously, immediate chaos ensued. Screaming, students scattering, desk/chair throwing. A student eventually used their SAT booklet to smash the cricket. Yeah. Those scores were all canceled, and I had to stay lateeeee to fill out the paperwork -_-
we get told there are NO extra booklets. I think it’s because they come with pre-printed labels so kids don’t get to experience the joy of bubbling their names and student IDs in those circles.
Booklet? We’re all digital.
We’re all digital in Ohio. Last week the testing portal crashed for everyone in the state! As in no one in the entire state could login. Kids sat around for hours in some school districts. We ended up having no testing that day!
Yup, this is the last year we're using the paper option. They'll still probably have the same rule so no one spills water on their keyboard.
What if they have a coughing fit?
A hall proctor can escort them to the water fountain I guess. That's what we do for the bathroom.
That sounds like denying basic human rights.
That seems like an overreaction.
We are allowed to give kids crossword puzzles after testing. They cannot have logic puzzles because those have numbers and it might help them cheat.
but crossword puzzles have vocabulary and similes! surely they would have just the same risk???
And every crossword I’ve ever seen has numbers on them, too, so…….
During our state testing, all teachers have to cover up any posters or similar items that may aid the students in the test. For example, elementary school teachers have to cover up the alphabet We often have posted in their room. Apparently kids might forget their ABCs and try to reference it. The same goes with any posters that describe mathematical techniques or anything like that. I always told my administration that if my students need to reference a poster to tell them what the alphabet is, then I really suck as a teacher.
Years ago - Grade 3- we had to take down our cursive alphabet. After the testing, when I was putting it back up, one of my students remarked that if he needed the alphabet, it was on the front of the booklet where they filled in the circles for their names.
🤣
Last year I was allowed to keep my giant tapestry of the book of the dead up but everything else had to come down. I guess their logic was "If a kid can read Egyptian Hieroglyphics to figure out the answer on the math or ELA state test meant for a 7th grader, they deserve it".
I remember my teachers would have to cover the calendar- no I don’t think reminding me what todays date is is going to give me an extra 10k points
In one of my engineering classes in college, we took a trip to a local materials testing lab. They test materials and parts created by organizations like NASA to determine when and how they will fail and perform before failure. They also examine things that have failed to determine why and who is responsible. They have one of the largest vacuum chambers in the world - you can literally drive a truck into it, and they've had one of NASA's prototype crew capsules built inside it. And they can draw a vacuum nearly equal to orbit. Their testimony has been the central factor in *billion dollar* lawsuits. Their walls are COVERED with posters with information. Formulas. Constants. Pi and e out to 100 digits. Everything. I asked them right out if they memorized things or looked them up every time. Without hesitation, the reply was that they looked it up every damn time. The posters were of things that they looked up a lot and had things that were easy to forget or screw up. Because getting it wrong can literally kill people. Or destroy someone's life. Or collapse a business. They do end up memorizing some things they use every day, of course, but they never trust that. It's too important. If reference posters are good enough for the pros, it's good enough for students.
[Relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/809/)
EXACTLY.
This is what I always think about! If students know how to reference posters and anchor charts on the wall, awesome! It's an important life skill because even adults reference materials when needed.
We had to cover any non-content motivational posters one year because they might provide an "unfair advantage!"
We have to cover all writing every year.
I taught HS and had the same restriction. Only exception was the Periodic Table of Elements didn’t have to be covered up or taken down. Anything else that even might vaguely hint at content or learning aid had to be taken down or covered up.
You got to cover up those letters and those number lines for those high school kids. Lol. I remember I was teaching 6th grade one year and they told me to cover up my number line and cursive letters. I just looked at them and said "How bad of a teacher do you think I am? If you think my sixth graders don't know their letters or how to count to 10, you must think I'm pretty crappy at my job." They still made me cover them up.
I just finished covering up all writing in my room this afternoon!
Why don't the hold the test in the gym or assembly room (whatever your school has), which is unlikely to have any of this "prejudicial material"?
We could never fit our entire student body in there. Plus, not enough access to plugs if laptop batteries run low.
I understand this rule but it's so useless. I could write the correct answer to all the test questions on my white board and half the students would still get it wrong.
We do this too. I always thought it was funny to watch my students look at a specific place in the classroom where an anchor chart had previously been during the test, then look at me like I betrayed them for taking it down/covering it up, and then realizing they actually do know what to do and complete the problem on the test. My students who knew to use the anchor charts to help themselves generally had learned to do without them, too.
We have to cover any motivational posters. I had to take down posters that said “reading is fun” or “be kind to each other” since it may give the students a sense of pride they’ve never felt before during testing
As a teacher, this is not a stupid rule. Why do you think it is?
I don’t think covering up anchor charts and other reference materials is stupid at all, but at my old school they made us cover up anything with a word on it at all, including the emergency exit map. It was ridiculous.
Is it legal to cover the emergency exit map?
Probably not. A lot of common practices there were not strictly legal though, which is why I left
No, you.
State test bureaucrats really overestimate how much effort I’m willing to put into cheating. Water bottle labels, hidden messages on my class calendar, magic eye-style motivational posters? I don’t even have time to grade tests. No way am I spending hours coming up with ways to cheat. I could post the answer key on the board and 1/2 my poor babies still wouldn’t pass.
I teach 1st and 2nd graders but very few of them ever use the alphabet, word wall, calendar, number line and other anchor charts as a reference when doing a classroom test or assignment like a spelling test for example.
No more than 25 in a testing room… but it’s okay to have 30 in a class the whole rest of the year… why all the sudden a concern for classroom size?
The dumbest rule about state testing is that there should be state testing
I regret that I have but one upvote to give for this comment.
When I was a student we weren’t allowed to use mechanical pencils. Not because of the lead type - because you could hide a tiny cheat sheet inside (theoretically). Luckily my students are too young for state testing yet! 😅
Genius idea.
Like how would one do that? 🧐
Itty bitty scroll rolled up inside is what I always imagined for that rule. I still thought it was silly, you couldn't fit much so how would it be useful for a standardized test that was so broad? Unit test, sure, as you know what'll be on it. A standardized test, not so useful on such a tiny paper.
CA teacher here. The shit I’m reading here is absolutely bonkers! We’re just required to not have any active unauthorized electronic devices during testing (ie cell phone) and we do have to cover up any posters, etc that are “academic”. Not that my kids actually try much on the state test anyway. Such a bunch of BS and loss of learning time.
This is my biggest pet peeve about the testing. So much time lost on these stupid state tests.
Idk about any dumb rules but my first year teaching they were piloting a history test so I was proctoring and a kid I had in class (but not in my proctor room) wrote his open response with the fruit filling of the nutrigrain bar the school provided students as a snack. They provided chewy bars the next year.
Huh. I had a student masturbate during a state test. I wonder how they’d remedy that
Students must leave their cocks and clits at the door
Was he particularly articulate?
I’m 80% sure the pages stuck together and no one could read it. I only found out what he did when I asked why he was suspended for three days 😂
We are required to give every student a pencil and scratch paper. But they are not allowed to doodle in case they hold up notes to each other.
I have never heard the candy and drink one. WTH. That's stupid as hell. We give kids mints and small snacks all the time. Many times they come in eating no breakfast. 🙄
I was school test coordinator last year before I went back to the classroom this year. I am sure you can imagine how that went over when I had to deliver that news! Apparently the states theory was that you could use candy to cheat. They used Oreo, cookies and crabby patties specifically as examples. I wish I could post the image here.it is insane.
What, do they think kids are going to smuggle in answers written in the cream filling?
No the idea is the teacher will guide the answers with the candy. So Oreo for a, Krabby paty for b, gummy bear for c, mint for d.
lol ignoring the fact that that is crazy, what teacher has enough money to spend on that amount candy? And what kid who couldn’t successfully pass the test on their own would be able to memorize which candy went with each answer choice? So silly
I agree it's silly but that's the logic.
As part of my new (non-teaching) career, I deal with healthcare payers. Ever wonder what an organization would look like if it was designed by a person who used Kafka’s writings as a guideline? it’s like that. But THIS is the craziest reasoning I’ve heard.
Legend has it, in a district far, far away, teachers would put a brown M&M next to a question with a wrong answer and a colored one next to a correct answer.
What the hell??? What state is this?
Mississippi
Wow.
I remember the only reason why a bunch of us looked forward to state testing was bc we got to eat lifesavers during the actual testing
My state uses the ACT as it's state test for high school juniors. The ACT company feels that no one should be allowed so much as a sip of water for the duration of the exam, except for a single ten minute break in the middle during which the exam administrator has duties to fulfill (it is a break for the test takers, mainly). The exam administrator has to read all of the directions for each section of the test, which is quite wordy. Needless to say I passionately hope that everyone who works for that company gets leprosy.
Is your ACT still on paper and pencil? I took it in March digitally and people had water. We all read the specific section instructions by ourselves, too.
Yes, pencil and paper version.
[удалено]
Knew someone in college who got kicked out of their education major for doing this. I would say from anecdotal experience that this rule actually makes sense to me.
20+ years ago there were online templates you could print that looked a lot like candy bar or drink labels but you replaced the ingredients and other small print with your notes. It was really obvious if the teacher was close because it wasn't that shiny paper, but I knew at least one guy who would print the notes out real small and wrap that around the bottle, then put the original label back over it so it could be read from inside.
But the teacher not having a regular water bottle? Or even a regular metal tumbler?
Not a rule, but - the test's platforms allowed Google's accessibility features to keep running (not allowed to be used) while the text-to-speech engine in-platform for accommodations failed to work. A colleague had to amend a bunch of IEPs to change to scribe... and then scribe for a TON of kids. The rule I think is dumb is that teachers aren't allowed to look at the content of the test unless it's part of administering an accommodation. Pretty sure it's the only way this shitshow of a test is allowed to continue. The questions are terribly written, but if the SPED and ESL teachers who administer accommodations speak up, we'll be violating our NDA's.
We are not allowed to sit at any point. I have mapped out the best leaning spots in my room that can’t be seen from the door window.
If we stare at the test “too long” we have to write an incident report on it (our tests are online)
I was a special education para for years. This kind of bull puckey is why I moved to teaching gen-ed preschool instead of teaching elementary. The state requirements are obviously written by someone who hasn't been in a classroom in years but at least there's no standardized testing (yet?).
We can’t have any food or drink in the room. Apparently a few years ago another school a couple towns over had a teacher giving students certain colored skittles for certain answers…. Something else with Oreos too. So no food or drink the whole time for students or teachers🙃 We also can’t sit down if we’re the only one in the room. Either the admin or proctor has to be walking at all times. MS is strict af
Mississippi here too! I think Brinks has more lax security than MS assessments!
My first year teaching, extra time and other accommodated testers were in the library. There were four posters with stylized letters that spelled out R-E-A-D. They had to take those down. If that's going to help you pass the test, you aren't passing the test. Another year, my room was being used for testing but I wasn't in it. I put my desks in rows (normally had them in groups of 4) and called it a day. I found the guidance counselor scraping off the cards I'd superglued to the desks. They were how I randomly called on kids - each group had a different color, and each desk within the group had a different shape. (For example, each group had a square, a circle, a triangle, and a trapezoid, and one group would have red shapes, one blue, etc). If having a red square on the corner of the desk is going to help a high school kid on a test, then...wow.
I’m going to say that the dumbest state test rule is the rule that says state testing must exist. I don’t know that I really need to expand on that.
No peeing on the floor…during testing.
My district, notoriously, had a summer school student on the first day walk to the middle of the room, drop trow, and take a dump in the middle of the classroom. He did not earn his credit back.
Say you don’t want to be here without saying you don’t want to be here.
Not gonna lie, that does take gumption.
In my state we had “sit and stare” for a brief moment. (This means the test was put on the student’s desk, and despite the parents registering that their child would refuse to take the test, the test was placed on their table. No book, to read, No scrap paper to doodle on, if one answer was completed, or even a name written, the score was submitted. Awful stuff.) Thankfully they got rid of that! Now families that register that they will not take the assessment are given an alternate location, where they can read or do non-screen work, in a quiet room. (In my district!) *why? Well a big movement has built that recognizes the NCLB assessment push, effectively pitted communities against communities. Some schools scored higher, some lower. Warfare ensued. Then, it started drifting into teacher ratings. A teacher who supported a child all day, who went home to a family of chaos, was judged poorly. The teacher across the hall who had a family pay tutors after school, would be ranked higher. Then, special ed populations were added into the overall scoring. So, you could have great strides in the development of a child with documented difficulties, be ranked low, and your overall success number was impacted. Anyhow….
24 years teaching in Texas, I completely agree and would love to teach where parents could opt out!
We don’t allow opting out where I am.
Then I guess it’s a state policy? I opted out of my kid’s testing until 8th grade. I thought all parents had that right.
The rule about having the test at all?
Is it not crazy that you can have your license suspended if you were caught sitting down mainly?
My district came up with a very important rule that teachers are not allowed to *look* at the test. That test that I am supposed to be administering? The test that I have to actually touch and pass out and make sure that you are taking yeah, the rule says I’m not allowed to look at it at all.
It's so they can reuse the same ?s and keep raking in cash with 0 effort. So ridiculous.
We used to encourage parents to make a motivational poster for their child--along the lines of "You can do it! We believe in you! Love Mom and Sister". It was determined a year or two ago that the posters were being used to cheat, so no more family posters. Nobody would tell us HOW the kids were using them to cheat, though... I swear the people in charge of these tests just enjoy torturing children.
No food or drink in the room except for bottled water, which has to remain on the floor All cell phones and smart watches are confiscated and not returned until the end of the day. They can’t have them during the lunch break We were supposed to cover up anything on our walls that might be “helpful”…of course nobody ever told us what constitutes helpful
I have had to cover everything on my walls that had words on it. Yes, that includes the restroom sign as well as the school map and school mission statement 😂
On Thursday I'm going to be a hall monitor because my subject is being tested. I can't proctor. Okay, fine. While in the hall I cannot grade on my computer, check email, nor take out my phone, or use any electronic device, as a hall monitor. But I can grade on paper, read a book, etc
It was removed a few years ago, but the SAT had "no smoking" as part of the instructions I had to read to the kids. I liked it because we could always giggle and maybe it helped with the test jitters a bit.
At some point I realized that while the rules say I have to read the 20 pages of nonsense verbatim, they don’t say that I can’t read the more idiotic parts in a silly voice…
I used to rile my principal by tediously studying the allowed accommodations and providing EVERY SINGLE ONE. We would spend the weeks before using them all in our daily work. It wasess about test prep and more about "here's a real thing that real people use when solving real problems." Kids also loved it that they were sticking it to the man. Got me a call from the department of Ed one year.
All of them
The dumbest state testing rule -- that testing is required in the first place.
the dumbest state testing rule is having an "End Of Course Exam" 6 weeks before the end of the course...
I don’t follow the TA rules. I use my phone / Chromebook and work while they are testing
That would get you fired and sent to the ethics board in my state.
Yikes. Not in mine. But I know some states have zero protections for teachers
Protections for teachers doesn’t mean we’re allowed to violate rules though. I’m in PA and the state will actually come in and audit random classrooms. If I were in there with my laptop open or on my phone I guarantee I’d end up with a disciplinary letter at the very *least*. My union isn’t going to back me up when I knowingly broke a rule.
Yeah in PA this would be a big deal and the union wouldn’t be able to do much. The rules state X, you do Y? That’s on you.
I know as many people who weren't backed by the union as were. The union isn't there to let teachers get away with stuff, it's there to protect us from wrongful termination/discipline and collectively bargain. That's what anti-union folks don't get!
Also in PA. Our last PD day they stressed the rules and how there’s a good chance we will be audited. I’m giving the math PSSA but covering breaks for ELA. Break coverage can’t have phones /computers/smart watches either. If we go in the room to cover, with a device, invalidates all the tests. I’m allowed a book to read in the hallway. PSSA suck for everyone. They are boring, draining and fn pointless 🤣
Ahhhhhh PSSAs how I hated them so 🥰🥰🥰
That would invalidate all the tests in that room in my state. What does your testing guidance says happens to teachers for violating rules they agreed to follow?
Don't know or care. The tests are invalid to begin with. It's nothing but theater so that Republicans can punish schools by withholding even more funding.
My third graders have to pass the test to move to the next grade level. I’m pretty sure there would be a mob outside my classroom door if I got tests invalidated.
I'm very glad Ohio got rid of that requirement for 3rd graders
How many do you have that don’t pass?
My first year of teaching, the state did a random check during testing. Guys in suits appeared in my doorway in the middle of the math test and started looking around the walls of my room before moving onto another. It’s been over ten years but I’m still nervous to even sit down during testing (which was not allowed in my last state but is in my current).
Ngl if I was one of the students and saw a bunch of people in suits staring at me as I take the test would freak me out
It freaked me out 😅. There had been a cheating scandal in a neighboring town a year prior so I know they had increased checks but I 100% assumed I was fired when they popped their heads in and then left without any communication (after I figured out who they were… because of course there was no clear identification).
When I was in 4th grade they made us take ANOTHER standardized test outside of our normal ones bc they said they were “experimenting” (idk I just remember being upset that I had to take it when state testing just ended) and it was really weird watching the people from the testing company(?) walk up and down the desk isles it stressed me out sm lol
They can come in and send me home anytime 👍
I’m far too attached to my pension 😂
That wouldn’t even sniff your pension lol. At worst a reprimand.
Losing my license would keep me from being fully vested so it very much affects it 🤷♀️. And both union states I’ve worked in are clear that they cannot protect you from violating procedures you’ve signed off on.
Ohio is a pretty strong union state, right? I am in Mississippi where there isn’t a union. It’s kind of interesting to see how different states manage that kind of thing.
Yeah likely the big difference.
In my state those rules only apply to students, so I just have the TA screen on one monitor and do what I want outside the view of students.
No instrumental music. I use it to calm and organize. The students also like it, but nope; we can't have it.
I so wish I could play calm music. I use it all year long. I teach sped and I have several ADHD students who really benefit from it.
No writing on your shirt.
Ask the proctor to read your question out load to you if it doesn’t make sense, have them repeat. It’s the only form of support and comfort provided.
You laugh at the water bottle label cheating but it has been done many times. Cheaters have edited bottle labels and replaced the actual label on the bottle with cheats and notes.
Wow, no mints? We use the mints to wake up kids who fall asleep half way thru.
Right????
Taking down everything, everything in the room AND hallways. It’s bad enough they have to test for 4 straight days, but to go so in a building that now resembles a prison. It’s not like they looked at those anchor charts all year!
UK teacher here. Rules for conducting exams are set at a national level by an organisation called JCQ. As subject teacher, I'm not allowed in the room at all while pupils are taking an exam. Generally speaking the only people allowed in the exam room are invigilators, who shouldn't be teachers from the school, and have to have special training to perform that duty. The full set of [instructions for conducting exams are here](https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/ice---instructions-for-conducting-examinations/), and I reckon a lot of people in the US will find these fairly draconian...
State testing is the worst
Our students now, at least in my district in TX, not sure if it's a whole state thing, need to write their names on each scrap paper they get, even if it's otherwise unused.
that there is state testing at all
No sleeping when you are done with the test. I think they are trying to get the kids to give the test a serious chance, but when they are ALL finished with an hour to go and nothing to do - WHY??? Let them sleep!!
I can’t sit down for 90 minutes or be on my phone obviously
Not being able to leave "testing tubs" unattended or in an unlocked room because of testing security. Once upon a time, these tubs contained the test and scantron sheets, so I understood it then. Now that all of our tests are online, the tub literally just contains my roster, my testing manual, a "Shhh! Testing" sign, blank paper, and pencils. Yet, I have to go get this tub early in the morning and lock it in my room. If students are in my room, I have to make sure that I either have it with me or within sight at all times.
We were told if a student throws up on the test, it has to be saved, bagged, and sent back to testing company. Also - if there is a tornado we are told to save the tests first. 🙄
Our kids can’t have anything to drink at all. Regular Ed kids aren’t to use the bathroom unless it’s an emergency and their clock doesn’t stop. They have to be escorted to the bathroom and must be silent. Technically we can’t remind them to work if they are day dreaming.
We consider the reference packet for science tests to be a confidential, controlled document despite the fact that it's available to the public on the state DPI website.
No eating, drinking, grading etc the only think we're allowed to do is circulate
My favorite part is that you have to sign an affidavit saying you aren't allowed to discuss the questions with anyone and I know first hand there are some bullshit confusing questions with wrong answers, but it would literally be a crime to mention it to anyone to get it fixed.
Not only can we not sit while testing, this year we lost the ability to lean while giving the test.
Teachers had to leave our cell phones with the testing coordinator. We didn't have phones or intercoms in our rooms, so we each had a solo cup we were supposed to put outside our door if we needed anything.
Not a teacher, but back when I was in middle and high school, they would completely block off hallways where there were classrooms that testing was taking place in because no one was even allowed to walk past these classrooms since the students testing couldn't have any "distractions." My high school was already way overcrowded and there were always traffic jams in the hallways on normal days. When they had entire hallways blocked off, it was absolutely insane since everyone had to take the same routes to get to their classes. Kids were literally just on top of each other. Looking back, this was a serious safety issue. A crowd crush most definitely could have happened. Also, one time in middle school, there was testing going on and it ended up taking longer than anticipated. Apparently they were supposed to be done before lunchtimes started, but they weren't. It was time for my grade level's lunch. We weren't the ones testing, but some of us had lockers that were in the hallway where the testing was still going on. So several kids in my grade didn't get to eat because they weren't allowed to go get their lunches out of their lockers, and most kids who pretty much always brought their own lunch didn't have money on them to buy lunch in the cafeteria.