Open Letter to Teachers about Standardized Test Scores + {Teacher Appreciation Week Printable}

Open Letter to Teachers about Standardized Test Scores + {Teacher Appreciation Week Printable}

One of my least favorite times in the school year is the end of the year standardized testing. But probably not for the reason that you would think. You see, I know that those test scores become a major part of the teacher’s evaluation. Of course, I understand that it’s important to measure student growth because that could demonstrate how effective a teacher might be in the classroom. But there are so many important things that a test will never be able to show.

So this is my open letter to teachers about standardized test scores:

Dear Teacher,

We know this standardized test will never show how many hours you spent preparing lessons, making sure that each subject is meaningful to every student in your classroom.

It will never show how you stood up for a child who was being bullied. Or how you lost sleep worrying about that student.

No test can show how you took a subject that a student never understood and made it come alive for them. Or how you see potential in the children, even if they can’t see it in themselves.

No test can measure the impact you have on the students’ lives. It won’t show the kindness and the compassion and the understanding that you provide on a daily basis. And it certainly doesn’t measure your patience. Because no matter how long it took, you never gave up on the child that needed you the most.

These tests can’t measure how much money you’ve spent, out of your own pocket, to make sure that your students have lunch to eat, school supplies to use, or even clothes to wear.

These test results won’t show how you’re the bright spot in a student’s day. How you helped a child who used to dread school and they now look forward to coming every day, because they know you will be there encouraging them.

No test can measure the love and kindness that you have poured into your students – my children. It may seem that so much of your hard work goes unnoticed…but it does not. We know that what you do everyday goes far beyond…

So no matter what the test scores show, THANK YOU for sowing into our children’s lives each and every day. We know you made a difference!