300 Educators Reveal How They Prepare Students for High-Stakes Testing and How Admins Can Help Support Them

When it comes to efficient test preparation, proactive planning is a sure way to set students up for success so that they can go into test day calm and confident. But how exactly are educators getting their students ready for testing? And how can administrators better support educators as they support students during state testing season?

Edmentum is here to help. In a survey on our blog from December 15, 2021, to January 24, 2022, we asked more than 300 of the amazing educators who read our blog about their testing preparation practices and strategies.

Our goal for this blog is twofold – 1) To help educators understand how other educators are preparing for tests so they can improve their practices and 2) To help administrators better understand how they can support their educators during testing season. First, let’s unpack the results.

Over 300 educators anonymously shared their thoughts with us through three main questions:

1. How far in advance do you start preparing students for high-stakes/state testing? [multiple-choice question]
    
2. What tools/classroom resources do you think are most effective to specifically help prepare students for high-stakes testing? [multiple-choice question]
    
3. What in your opinion is the biggest challenge when it comes to preparing students for high-stakes testing? [multiple-choice question]

Additionally, participants were also asked a few demographic questions—such as job title, years of teaching experience, and the grade levels they interact with—to provide more insight into the respondents.

Let’s look at what the educators who responded had to say, along with some key takeaways.

Results & Key Takeaways

How far in advance do you start preparing students for high-stakes/state testing?

Educators were given three time ranges to select for their answer choices, in addition to an “other” option. The pie chart shown above is representative of the percentage of total answers in each category from the 306 educators who participated.

Takeaway: While responses were somewhat evenly distributed across the question, 33 percent of the educators surveyed reported that they began preparing for state testing two to three months before the testing date, followed by 30 percent who prepare four to five months before testing and 24 percent who prepare one month or less before the test.

What tools/classroom resources do you think are most effective to specifically help prepare students for high-stakes testing? [multiple-choice question]

Educators were given ten options and were asked to select their top three choices, but they had the ability to select anywhere from one to ten answers. Of the 306 educators who were surveyed, respondents selected an average of 3.5 answers, yielding a total of 1,081 responses. The data shown on the horizontal bar graph above are representative of the percentage of respondents per category.

Takeaway: Practice tests and teaching test-taking strategies were the most popular answer choices, followed by review sessions, in-class games, stress and anxiety management, and formative assessment. Check out our blog on Marzano-validated best practices for online practice for more tips on how you can get the most out of test prep in the classroom.

What in your opinion is the biggest challenge when it comes to preparing students for high-stakes testing? [multiple-choice question]

Educators were given five answer choices and asked to select the one that they most identified with, but they had the ability to select anywhere from one to five answers. Of the 306 educators who answered, respondents selected an average of 1.6 answers, yielding a total of 496 responses. The data show in the vertical bar graph above are representative of the percentage of total answers per category.

Takeaway: Keeping students engaged and motivated was the number one challenge identified by educators in this survey, followed by the amount of content that needs to be covered to prepare, the ability to differentiate instruction, and exposing students to standard-based practice assessments.

With such a wide variety of responsibilities, including offering support and encouragement, making sure that important material has been covered and understood, and teaching test-taking strategies, educators pour a lot of time and effort into test preparation.

With the right online tools, it’s possible for educators to facilitate designing a rigorous and effective test preparation program for your school or classroom, without monopolizing all your time and effort. Check out this blog post to see how an online practice can help support you as you prepare students for high-stakes assessments.

How Administrators Can Help

Administrators have a lot on their plate day to day, and it can be hard to find a way to make sure that students are well-prepared for state assessments, but there are plenty of opportunities for administrators to ensure that teachers, families, and students are ready for test day. Check out a few quick tips for administrators to lend support to everyone:

1. Provide educators with options to help engage students:

Our survey results indicated that one of the biggest challenges faced by educators when preparing students for assessments is keeping students engaged and motivated to learn. Teachers report that interactive content, such as games and competition, helps engage and motivate students. Celebrate student success by incentivizing students to do their best work with fun schoolwide initiatives. 

Additionally, enabling students to monitor their own progress keeps them involved in their learning and makes them feel successful as they watch their individual results improve. Check out these tips to help students find and maintain enthusiasm in the classroom all year long.

2. Help parents and families get on board

Communicating with parents on a regular basis is an integral part of engaging them in their child’s success with testing. Parents and families need to be kept in the loop about schedules of state testing, expectations, and ways in which they can best help their child at home.

Teachers reported that sending home notes with practice materials for parents to work through with their child helps keep parents involved. Teachers also use other tools, such as email and websites, to communicate with parents. These tools give parents visibility into their child’s progress and convey ways in which they can help their child at home. Check out tips for parents to help students prepare for testing!

3. Use benchmarking

Test prep doesn’t have to take over your classroom agenda in the spring. By utilizing formative assessment strategies and making the most of practice testing, teachers can provide students with individualized support without sacrificing time from the standard curriculum.

Benchmark assessments, also known as interim benchmarks, can also be used to establish a baseline of student understanding, to identify specific strengths and needs for each learner, and to help to guide future instruction that could ultimately prepare students for high-stakes testing.

4. Strategize with effective techniques

Educators know that every minute is precious in the classroom. That’s why it’s so important to use research-backed test-preparation strategies and practices that will be engaging and effective with students. In our survey, educators indicated they felt teaching test-taking strategies, practice testing, review sessions, in-class games, and formative assessments were the most effective tools to prepare students for testing. Practice testing has been proven to be one of the most effective learning techniques, but knowing how to put this technique to use most effectively is critical to success.

5. Personalize learning

Offering students a personalized approach to learning that works for all of the different types of learners in your program can promote increased motivation, engagement, and achievement all year-round. By utilizing a program like Exact Path, Edmentum’s K–12 diagnostic-driven, individualized learning program, educators can better understand students’ strengths and remaining areas of growth to bolster students’ learning. Check out this post to see how Exact Path can help your educators make the most of the end of the school year as they prepare for testing.

6. Don’t forget about stress management

Testing season can be a stressful time for both students and educators. Help educators combat testing anxiety for students by cultivating a productive classroom environment, teaching effective test-taking strategies, and leveraging mindfulness as your test-prep secret weapon.

As testing draws near, make time to check-in with teachers to make sure that they are ready for assessment day too. Remember that positivity starts at the top! No matter the challenges your district has experienced this year, make it known that you believe this testing season will yield great results and that you appreciate the hard work your educators have put in.

To help save you time and energy as you put together a test-prep plan this year, Edmentum has complied all our best resources in one place. Put a foolproof plan together this testing season to catch any blind spots and prepare students to successfully show what they know. Check out our free guides, blog posts, and downloadables in Edmentum’s new Test-Prep Toolkit.