My new four-letter word…AIMS

I have a new four-letter word…well acronym to be more correct:  AIMS.  AIMS stands for Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards.  It is not only the AZ state test, but success on this test is mandatory for graduation.  I use this new profanity probably 800 times a day (this is without exaggeration, sadly).  I warn my students how important it is to take this test seriously.  I yell at them about how limited their options will be if they do not pass this test.  I remind them how every single thing that I am teaching them relates back to this test.  And then I go home and have nightmares about preparing my students to take this test.

I wish I could remove AIMS from my vocabulary, but in reality EVERY student I teach (minus a few random kids and the foreign exchange students) has to take this test.  In Arizona, sophomores take the test, and if they do not pass, they will continue to attempt it twice a year until graduation…except that they don’t graduate without a passing score, so there are actually students in Arizona who have all the credits necessary to graduate but continue to come back to school twice a year to attempt to pass.  Many, instead, end up giving up.  There are some ways around passing, but not many.

I have 15 days of instruction left before my students take their AIMS test.  In reality, I know that if my students don’t pass, it does not directly relate back to my teaching ability, or at least not only my ability (after all, they’ve only been my students for about 6 months but they’ve been students for 10+ years); I also know that when they ask the English teachers to share the scores with their students I will have a hard time not tearing up with the juniors and seniors who I teach who do not pass (some for the 5th time).  I’ve already gone through that feeling in the fall, and it’s not something I ever want to feel again.  I want them all to succeed.  More, I want them to want to succeed.  So I’m working my butt off, using that four-letter word more often than I like to admit, and stressing more than most of my students are over the test.

In the next few weeks, I’m sure I will not be the most pleasant person to be around.  I hate that I’m “teaching to the test” and that I’m putting so much pressure on my students.  I hate that the state of Arizona puts me in this situation, and that it seems like so many of my students are unprepared for this high-stakes test.  This is not who I am as a teacher, and this is not a position I’ve ever been in before.  But what is truly my other option?  Pretend like the test doesn’t exist?  I’m not willing to affect my students’ future by not taking this seriously and doing everything I can to prepare them.  Instead, I teach my lessons every day with that stupid test in mind, praying that the pieces of information I share will come in use at the end of the month.

I can’t wait until March when this is all over…at least until the scores come in…