Teachers have high expectations for their students. We understand how much time, attention, and energy we put into our instruction and preparation. We also feel the pressures that are placed on us for our students to do well. This can include pressure from parents, administrators, and even ourselves. However, we are 0% responsible for which bubble students shade on the scantron, the key they hit on the computer, or the word they write on the essay while they are taking these assessments. As much as we try to motivate students to do their best, some things can negatively impact how students perform on assessments including:
- Not taking the assessment seriously (unfocused, unprepared, rushing, careless, etc.)
- Having a bad day
- Social or emotional issues
- Basic needs not being met
- Inadequate instruction, curriculum, environment, or resources
There may be other reasons why students may perform poorly on assessments, however, they can be included in one of the above-mentioned reasons.
One of the resources many teachers are trained to use when identifying the root of academic and behavioral problems is the ICEL Matrix. This is a tool used to explain academic and behavioral problems. ICEL stands for: Instruction, Curriculum, Environment, and the Learner. The learner is the last domain to consider when trying to identify the problem. The instruction given by the teachers, the curriculum the teachers are required to teach, and the environment in which teachers give the instruction must all be examined first.
Whenever this tool was taken out to identify academic problems, I felt attacked before the examination began. Usually, the curriculum will not be questioned. It is ALWAYS science-based… and questioning the curriculum that our employers approved is not the safest thing to do to ensure job stability.
In general, I believe teachers would rather be the problem in student learning. If teachers were the main problem in student learning, we would change this. This sounds like an easy fix. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
As teachers, it is our responsibility to provide the best education that we can for our students. Teachers strive to do this every day. When we do not have the resources or support that we need, proving adequate instruction will be more difficult. When we are further limited by the curriculums we must use, it makes the task of teaching individual students more daunting. Teachers continue to try to rise to the challenge. We do the best we can with what we have available.
Sometimes… Many times, our best is not enough to change student performance. Looking down at the test data in front of us can cause upsetting and disappointing feelings or hopeless thoughts. Sometimes we feel as if we have failed our students, let them down, or that we are the problem. These and other negative feelings or thoughts can cause stress, anxiety, depression, and other health problems. It is important that we protect our health and wellness as we are going through these periods of disappointment.
When teachers do not have a proactive way of handling our feelings during these times, we can unconsciously take it out on our families, students, and ourselves. Teachers can try to hide the hurt, but many times, our students and close family members know that something is wrong or bothering us. Our students are smart. They are around their teachers for an entire school year. They see us at our best and our worst. They see us when we are genuinely happy, sad, and mad. Faking how we feel is not effective, but proactively handling our disappointments will help.
Dwelling on the problem will not help us or our students as we stand before them day after day. We want to continue to try to provide them with the best educational experience we can, but it can be difficult when test scores are looming over our heads.
During those moments of disappointment, we must not think negatively about ourselves or our students. It does not promote healthy relationships with our students nor the best environment for learning to take place.
Before we ponder over the problem or try to create a new course of action for better results, here are some tips to help teachers best deal with our high expectations not being met.
Don’t take it personal
The fact that your students did not meet your expectations on an assessment does not speak to your personal character. In the same way, students should not be reduced to a test score, teachers should not be reduced to how well students perform on a test. Many times, teachers have higher expectations than their students. Our desire for them to do well does not equal their effort on the test. Effort does not work that way. We must be able to separate our personal feelings from the test results in order to problem-solve objectively.
You may have heard it said before, “She is a bad teacher”. No one wants to be called a bad teacher. This may be said about a teacher when her students continually perform poorly. If she is not getting the support that she needs to be successful, what type of results do we expect her students to get? This does not prove that she is a bad teacher, but she may be an unsupported one.
As teachers, we can be hard on ourselves, even when we are doing everything we know to do. Being a good teacher is not an innate skill. Test results will go up and down. However, our mental stability should not follow that trend. Test scores do not determine a teacher’s worth.
Do your best every day, analyze your results, and create a new plan of action. Advocate for yourself by speaking up to get the resources and support that you need and document when you do not receive them for your records. None of this is personal so do not make it personally. This job takes some mental toughness and
grit. One way to develop these skills is not to take disappointments personally.
The only person you can control is you.
You can use encouragement and persuasion to motivate students. Some teachers try to
use manipulation and fear tactics to make students learn (this
doesn’t work). We must remember that the only person you can control is you. Understanding this should cause you to take a sigh of relief. It can relieve pressure so you can be focused and empowered to change what you can.
Teachers have good intentions and we want the best for our students. When it comes to our students’ education, we have the skills and resources to do this job. We must strive to be our best every day. However, the students must strive to do their best every day.
This is one reason it is important for teachers to encourage, motivate, and simulate learning. This helps students take on responsibility for their learning. If we could have control over the learning of students we would have taken it a long time ago. Don’t beat yourself up when test results don’t go your way. Remember, our job is not to control students, but to inspire, encourage, and enlighten them.
Also, remember that all students are different. They are all geniuses in one way or another. However, no standardized test is capable of capturing all of their greatness by assigning a number or letter to it.
Focus on Growth
Students enter our classroom at different levels of learning. There will always be some students performing below, on, and above grade levels. We know that all students can learn, but they learn at different rates. For a year, students are entrusted in our care. In student growth terms, our job as a teacher is a year’s worth of growth in a year’s worth of time. Many teachers strive to grow students up to the end of their current grade level. It is very possible for students to grow multiple academic grade levels within one school year. If it happens that is great, but do not punish yourself when students enter your class well below grade level and they leave below grade level.
Did students grow a full year? If you are teaching 8th-grade math and a student enters your class achieving 3rd-grade math proficiency level, helping him/her grow to 4th, 5th, or even 6th-grade level is growth. If you could not help them grow up to the 8th-grade level, do not beat yourself up.
Celebrate the growth and continue from there. More important than getting yourself upset over not meeting very difficult standards is to focus on growth.
Again, students will not grow at the same rate, but they should experience growth. If they are moving in the right direction, that is something to celebrate and be proud of. Experiencing small successes can be the encouragement you need to focus on the next skill that will show continued progress for students.
Give yourself time to process the information before sharing it with students.
Depending on the assessment, many teachers want to look at test results as soon as they are available. The suspense of waiting to know “how they did” can be very stressful. Analyzing the results immediately may not be a good idea. Do not look at test results for the first time when your students are present. If the results are shocking, you will not want your feelings to damper the mood in the classroom. While you are present with your students, be present. Look at the results once they leave so that you will have adequate time to process them. This will allow you to think about the best course of action to move forward.
Focus on what is most important
More important than test scores is the hope we give students and the grit that is developed in them to persist. We encourage them, and we help them to believe in themselves.
Let’s face it, all students will not do well in school. That does not mean that they will not succeed in life. It does not mean that they are destined to be failures or live a mediocre life. Some of the best of us did not do well in school. However, I am positive that they had someone who believed in them and it helped them to believe in themselves. They had someone who encouraged them and told them that they could do anything if they put their minds to it. Teachers can be and many times are those people in a child’s life. It can make the difference in that child continuing to keep trying when things get hard or giving up at the first sign of difficulty. It can make the difference in that child believing in themselves and persisting or believing that they cannot, without even trying.
The way we react to our students after seeing the test results is just as important as how we interact before seeing them. The stress, anxiety, depression, or other health problems that can come when our high expectations are not met is counterproductive to the mentally and physically healthy teacher that needs to stand in front of students every day. If you need more resources on dealing with stress, check out “3 Tips to Ease Teacher Stress Immediately“. Be that mentally and physically healthy teacher that your students need you to be before and after seeing discouraging test results. Your stability and grace will benefit them as well as you.
