Editor’s Note: This is only the comments from students in the Wyoming and Kentwood area. For the complete story, click here.
It’s become an annual ritual. Each fall the state releases results of the M-STEP, the state-required standardized test taken by Michigan students to gauge their proficiency in reading, math, social studies and science. And each fall educators, parents and pundits wring their hands over why students aren’t doing better.
Rather than go back to the same hand-wringing sources, we decided to ask the people most directly affected by these tests: the students who take them. How do they feel about these tests, and how could the tests be improved?
Adults, listen up: Maybe they can teach you something.
Kelloggsville Middle School
Gianna Turnbull, sixth-grader
Gianna dreams of being a baker someday. She recalls taking the M-STEP last year.
“I was anxious,” she said. “Some of the questions on the math test were confusing. I felt like I was gonna fail.”
Gianna said she took the M-STEP “very seriously. I sat at a desk where nobody could distract me.”
She wasn’t sure how the test will help students, but suspects it could help predict what kinds of things they could do in the future. Despite not enjoying the experience, Gianna said, “I think students should take the test so the state knows what the school’s teaching you.”
Jonathan Mubake, sixth-grader
When he sat for the M-STEP, “I was messed up!” Jonathan said. “My brain was somewhere else. …. It was like two computers (were) connected to me! I was trying to read (the page) as fast as I can, but it’s 10 paragraphs long!”
He said social studies was the hardest topic for him.
“I was exhausted, my head hurt, and my feet were wobbly,” he said, from his foot shaking out of nervousness. “I was ready to eat my food and go outside and go play. I was just ready for that, until I had to go back into the room and do the whole thing over again.
Jonathan would like five weeks’ notice to prepare for future standardized tests.
“I would prepare mentally. I would eat a perfect breakfast in the morning, get ready for school, make sure I had the right clothing on — not uncomfortable — so it’s not too tight for me to do my thing. I would go to sleep at … I would say 8, so I get enough rest.”
Crestwood Middle School, Kentwood
Kamau Brame, seventh-grader
Kamau said M-STEP tests give students an idea of how they are doing in different subjects, but sometimes the process gets a bit complicated.
“I don’t particularly look forward to them, but I don’t mind doing them. They aren’t too tedious. The teachers know what you already know and what you need to go over more.”
Math is hardest for him. “I find some questions super-easy and some I have no idea what to start with. … Once you get a few questions right you start getting really hard ones, and you kind of stress out because you know you’re not getting those right.”
He sees testing as helpful for later grades, with the “big-test SAT and ACT and all that. It gets you used to having to prep for tests and taking them under pressure.” But he’d like to spend less time on setup. “I would change all the stuff you have to do before each test. … It’s like a long process signing in and all that.”
The atmosphere at school can be a bit tense during testing, he said. “Last year some other grades told us how bad it was. … The anticipation is the worst.”
Erna Kljaic-Dugalic, seventh-grader
Erna said she mostly takes the testing in stride.
“I don’t mind the M-STEP, but I don’t get stressed out about it. I usually finish early because I don’t second-guess myself.”
But math can be a bit hard on her nerves, because it “starts easy and then gets harder and harder. It doesn’t really stress me out, but it makes me feel like I’m set up for failure. I also get really tired from looking at the screen.”
She looks at test results as a way to think about what kind of job she’d be good at. “I do think it does help with your career because it shows your strengths.”
That said, she would definitely change the length.
“I understand that it’s long for a reason, but I would like it if it was a little bit shorter, maybe like two days, because sometimes it can take up a week for some kids to finish it. I’d like it to be shorter so we have more time for other things at school.”
Alana Biley, sixth-grader
Overall, M-STEP isn’t too bad, Alana says.
“I don’t mind it because it helps you to know what level you’re on and you won’t be on things that are too easy or too hard.”
However, it does make her nervous. “I’m just like, ‘Oh gosh!’ I get butterflies in my stomach like a week before.”
She’d feel better with more preparation.
“I would probably want a pre-test to get you ready for it.”
