Letter to Teachers: Your Faithfulness Matters in Students’ Testing

I don’t want you to think the wrong way about standardized testing, such as ERB tests or the CLT, etc.
 
Your goal is growth for your students. You cannot make them grow, but you can create an environment where faithful effort is a necessary condition for growth. You can also create an environment where there is a loose connection between faithful effort and growth. The former will engender growth for most of your students. The latter will engender growth for a select few.
 
The tests we take are not minimum skills tests. They are designed to work for the brightest students in the country. It is unreasonable to expect a high “percent correct” on these tests. You should expect students to grow from one test to another. Your daily faithfulness to preparation, your own learning, grading, consistency, expectations, student shepherding, and reasonableness creates the environment wherein students have to grow if they are going to be successful.
 
You may hear students talk about a “really hard question” on the test. This is not necessarily a reflection on your teaching or an indication that you failed to cover certain material. The test is designed so that a large majority of your students will encounter very hard questions.
 
That there are hard problems on the test and also in life is why it is essential that we provide students opportunities to struggle, fail, and succeed in a consistent classroom environment. It is this experience that teaches them how to continue on after failure or struggle, calling on God for help
 
This is also why it is important that we give our students the opportunity to struggle, to fail, and to succeed as this experience in a guided and safe environment of home and school prepares them to succeed through failure in life.