From the Chair: Test Anxiety to Test Success

While I was an elementary counselor, I had a parent share a request during our spring school counselor advisory meeting. This mom wanted to know if I would do an evening of activities to help parents help their students with the anxiety produced by state testing. She told me about the intense anxiety she and her very capable daughter had experienced during their first go at state testing. Both were anxious because of testing myths and neither knew what to expect when the state test was given. Mom's anxiety was high because she didn't know how to help her child, and her daughter's was high because she was afraid she would fail the test and fail third grade.

As Mom and I brainstormed ideas, she mentioned many of the things I talked with the students about in my classroom lessons. She was glad I had shared these tips with students, but also wanted tools for herself, and parents like her, to reinforce with their children. Out of our conversations, Test De-stress Night for grades three through five was created. The evening would be offered the month before state testing and would include food, child care, and four concurrent sessions. Parents would be able to arrive straight from work, grab some dinner, send the little ones to child care, and attend as few or as many sessions as they had the time or interest to attend. And because all four sessions were offered concurrently, it didn't matter when you arrived, ate, or left for home.

Our principal and assistant principal took the lead on talking to parents about “Everything you Wanted to Know About State Testing.” They shared facts about how teachers prepared students for the test, what parents could do at home before the test, what testing days looked like, how state testing results were used, and how the school responded to third graders who got a 1 or 2. In the session next door, an experienced yoga instructor offered “Yoga for Kids” with soft music and aromatherapy. The art teacher conducted a session where students created lap books with test success strategies and bookmarks with positive sayings. In my session, students learned and practiced a variety of breathing techniques and progressive relaxation strategies. Several teachers and parents asked to have the breathing and relaxation techniques shared with our faculty so they could use the tools with students during test stretch breaks or if they noticed students who seemed particularly anxious.

Overall, about 10 percent of our third- through fifth-grade students and their families attend Test De-Stress Night – a decent turn out for a first-time evening event, we though. The response on exit tickets from parents and students was positive and my administrators asked to make it an annual event. The best part about this evening was seeing, in the weeks leading up to testing, students and teachers practicing the positive test-taking strategies and relaxation techniques they had learned. Now that’s test success!
 
Contact Jeannie Maddox, FSCA board chair and a middle school counselor in central Florida, at jmaddox@volusia.k12.fl.us.