Case
Extrinsic factors impacting student performance

A Social Studies teacher in a suburban middle school notices a student who participates in class room discussions frequently, answers verbal high- and low-level questions regarding the content accurately, and performs well on classroom activities consistently performs poorly on major tests, especially the quarterly district benchmark exams. When observing the student during actual testing, she notes that the student spends a large amount of time staring off into space, and scrambles to answer most of the questions in the last few minutes of the testing time frame. The student has no identified attention disorder, but the teacher feels that the student's benchmark scores are not an accurate depiction of the student's actual abilities. How should the teacher address the discrepancy between scores and classroom performance?

Posted on: 10/19/14 | Views: 925
Solution #1
First I would meet with the other teachers in the grade level to see if this is the same for each of the student's subject areas. If it is the case then meet with the counselor who might be able to help with text anxiety strategies. These strategies should be shared with all of the Middle School kids. We need to start empowering students with strategies they can use based on their learning styles instead of jumping to the conclusion that the student might have an attention disorder.

I agree with this solution. The student is showing an obvious understanding of the material, but the test taking abilities are off. I think meeting with guidance counselor and learning strategies to fix test anxiety is a good first step.

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Solution #2
It sounds like the student has testing issues. The teacher needs to meet with the student's parents to see if testing has been a problem in the past. Then discussion could occur for what possible steps to take next to help this student become successful on benchmarks.

I agree with your solutions. There are many strategies that can be done to decrease test anxiety these days. If properly tested, the child would be able to get accommodations to help her out.

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Solution #3
Another solution would be to work with the student to develop testing strategies that he/she can complete on their own. Such as taking the allotted time for testing and dividing out the number of questions to get a ratio of how quickly he/she needs to answer questions. He/she than can develop their own schedule for the exam to take breaks once a certain number of questions have been answered.
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Solution #4
The teacher needs to meet with the student's parents to discuss how the student performs on tests. The teacher also needs to make it aware that the student is fully capable of doing well on the tests, but has issues not staying focused. The parents may provide helpful solutions to this issue.
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