How to Raise Test Scores When You Are Crunched for Time
Testing is the name of the game, and your very job may depend upon you getting your students’ test scores up. Maybe, you’re thinking that you don’t have enough time in the day to get it all done. If you want to raise your students’ test scores, but you don’t have a lot of time, there are ways that you can increase your students’ test scores in as little as 15 minutes a day.
Established Routine
Be sure that you have established a routine. Having a routine way of doing things will save you time and energy. Students crave structure and establishing a routine from the beginning will ensure that your class runs smoothly.
Bellringers
What are bellringers? Bellringers are activities that you have your students do when they first come into class. They are great for reinforcing skills and allowing you to do those mundane housekeeping activities like taking attendance, collecting homework, or whatever it is you have to do in the mornings to get your class started.
Your bellringers should be reflective of your state’s assessment. How do you ensure that these bellringers are aligned with your state’s testing standards? You do your homework.
You begin by looking at your state standards. Identify which standards are tested the most on the state assessment. These are the items that you want to really focus on. They are your “heavy-hitters.” Be sure to focus on these standards the most when planning your bellringers.
Bellringers don’t have to be long. They can be short and concise. As long as they are aligned with the tested items, they can help you to teach a skill quickly and effectively.
The students should complete the bellringers on their own before you go over them. Once they are finished, you can collect them, and then, you go over them as a class or you may want to allow your students to keep them to use as a reference. The most important thing to remember is that the bellringers should be reflective of the state assessment.
Homework
Make homework work for you. No, you don’t have to assign a whole lot of homework. Let’s face it. Homework can be beneficial, but giving students too much of it, can do more harm than good.
Once you have completed going over the bellringer, it’s time to go over that homework.
Homework should be meaningful. It should not be something that you give to your students just to say that you gave them homework. It should also be something that you have covered in class already. It should be a basic review of what you have already discussed in class. It should not be something new or too difficult.
Why is it important to review homework? Because you students have worked hard on completing their homework assignment, be courteous enough to grade it. Plus, your students’ parents will want to know that the time and effort their child (and possibly them depending on the age of the child) put into completing the assignment was not wasted.
Going over the homework in class will provide your students an opportunity to see where they made mistakes. They will also be able to formulate a plan for correcting those mistakes.
Engaging, Strategic Lessons
Get your students excited to learn! Your lessons should not be boring. You don’t want to be bored, and your students don’t want to be bored either. So, try to construct or find some interactive games that you can use in order to get your students more involved in learning the items that will be on the state assessment.
One of my favorite things to do was to take the released state test items and divide them up. I would place my students in groups. I would hand out the questions to my students. Each group of students would compete against the other groups to see who could answer the most questions. Prizes for winning included free homework passes, candy, or a trip to the treasure box.
Data Talks
In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been. Thus, the need for Data Talks with your students.
What are Data Talks? Data talks are when you have a “meeting” with your students individually to discuss what their weaknesses are, what their strengths are, and what they need to focus on in order to make the most points on their state tests and show academic growth.
Since you are trying to get this done in the least amount of time possible, you might want to split your class up into groups and spread these meetings out over the course of a week. You may want to do these by appointments. These talks shouldn’t take more than 3 to 5 minutes each.
https://eleducation.org/resources/using-data-engaging-students
Exit Tickets
Another ole but good are Exit Tickets. Exit Tickets are similar to Bellringers. However, instead of doing them at the beginning of class, they completed at the end of class.
Exit tickets can be…
- Multiple choice
- Short answer
- Discussion
- Class summaries
No matter which form of Exit Tickets you decide to use, be sure that they are aligned to the state test. This will allow you to assess what your students have learned, and it will provide another opportunity to hit those important testing standards.
Parental Involvement
It can’t be said enough. Parental involvement is one of the greatest factors in student performance. Your students will perform much better on their state assessments if their parents take an active interest in their test scores.
A good rule to thumb is to contact parents weekly. If that’s not possible at least every two weeks. Be sure that you don’t only make contact when there is a problem. You should try to build a good relationship with your parents.
Some simple ways to keep in contact with your parents are:
- Class newsletters
- Email messages
- Social media posts
- GroupMe, Remind Me, & Class DOJO
- Local newspaper articles
- Contact calendars
Be sure that you include the state standard that you will be focusing on for the week when contacting your parents. Make a point of explaining to your parents how they can help you teach this standard. This can include games that they can play, websites that they can use, and any other form of at home instruction.
You can have pre-made or automated message already ready for your parents. This works especially well if you are contacting your parents via email or through your phone. You can save a message in your clipboard and copy and paste the text. If you really want to get fancy, you can purchase a newsletter serve that will automate these for you.
You time is valuable. So, make the most of it. Implement some of these tips to help increase your students’ test scores.