Whats the mood in third-grade classrooms at Cedarville Elementary?
The mood is surprisingly good. We tend to have a fine line we have to walk as far as ISTEP is concerned. We worry about how we present it to children and about how parents present it to them as well. We don’t want them to get so anxious about it that they have stomach cramps every day. On the other hand, we want to make sure they are taking it seriously. 2What’s next? What does the state do with the tests, and how are they used as an accountability measure? The state takes the test, and many of them are shipped all the way out to California to be graded. Some (of the writing prompts) stay in state, and the rest go to California, and McMillen/McGraw-Hill CTB does that grading. Once everything gets back right around Thanksgiving time, the onus falls upon the schools and the teachers to look at the information and try to determine where we still have some deficiencies. We always have to keep in mind that this was a one-time test. Who knows what was going on in a kid’s life for the 5 1/2 h
