The start of the “testing” season will soon be upon us and we all know what that means. Coaches will be “tasked” to be the leaders of the testing brigade. But that’s the issue, isn’t it… coaches will be the testing coordinators, distributors, administrators, make-up facilitators, and test collectors because after all, they don’t have their own classes.

I urge you to be the coordinator… not of the testing process, but of the collective process that should occur in a school. There needs to be a testing committee that shares in the process. Each school has a librarian, a counselor, administrators, maybe a coordinator or two, and other support staff who can all take an active role in the testing community. If we believe that the whole community is impacted by testing, then we should involve the whole community in the testing process. Some schools, in fact, have parent committees who also offer a helping hand in the process. (These schools offer a “training” session to help acquaint parent volunteers with the process.) Each school is part of a district. I wonder if there are a few district folks who can lend a helping hand as well.

To the extent that you can, please try and organize a community effort as we approach the critical testing period. If a coach is the only one facilitating the process, think of all the missed opportunities for that coach to work with his/her teaching colleagues while the administrative work for testing occurs. Can we really, in all good conscience, suspend all our coaching efforts to administer a test that can be easily shared among several members in our communities of learning?

What is the testing process that your school/district employs? Is there room for change?