Document text
Good news: Even a journalist can pass the state's fifth-grade CIM Photo by Jim Craven Jim Scull, a student teacher at Kennedy School, got to see what his students face when he and seven other adults took one of the standardized tests required of Oregon fifth-graders. The tests were offered as part of "Back to School" week. Parents get a taste of tests By BILL MANNY Susan Inman passes out the answer sheets and test booklets. Then the Kennedy Elementary School principal gives us our instructions. "No trading of answer sheets or trading of answers," she tells eight adults assembled in the Kennedy media center for a quick trip back to fifth grade. We are there to get a taste of what Oregon fifth-graders face in the new world of school reform, benchmarks and CIMs. We are taking a standardized math test, offered as part of a weeklong "Back to School" event. But our challenge isn't the real fifth-grade experience -- the real fifth-graders take five of these tests. Inman's no-cheating admonition comes as no surprise. I remember that much from my elementary school days. However, there is one surprise: We can use calculators -- as well as other counting aids. "If you have to, take off your shoes, count your toes, do whatever you got to do," Inman says. We open our tests. The first question is a cinch: Bobbie has 270 stickers. Linda has 192 stickers. How many stickers does Linda need to have as many as Bobbie? With my No. 2 pencil I fill in the circle for Answer B. And so it goes. I identify parallel lines from among four shapes. Locate the coordinates A-5 on a map. Answer a question from information on a graph on human height. The first tricky question is about a basketball tournament. I draw a table and puzzle it out. Then comes Question 18. An up-pointing arrow of three dots is pictured, followed by arrows of five, seven and nine dots. If this goes 100 places, how many dots will the 100th figure have? I'm stumped. Then I see that each new figure adds two dots to the one before. It's basic algebra: 2x + 1, where x is the number for the figure of dots. I fill in Circle D, 201. Time's up, Inman announces. We close our booklets. Inman reviews the right answers. Thirteen out of 20 means we met the fifth-grade benchmark. "Whew!" says Diane Winchell, a Kennedy educational assistant who helps teachers give these very tests. As a "proctor," she helps make sure kids do things right, such as fill in the circles completely. "I've been wanting to take this test for a long time," says Winchell. "I have a daughter taking the 10th-grade CIM this year, so I wanted to see." "Did anybody have trouble with the dots?" wonders Jim Scull, a first-grade Kennedy student teacher. "I have the coolest visual learning pattern," says Liz Landon, a fifth-grade student teacher at Kennedy, explaining how she solved the dot question. When I explain my algebraic approach, Landon says that shows I am an aural learner. Inman and the student teachers agree that practicing the tests is a big help. Kids who practice before the real thing do about 20 percent better. "This is not designed to be scary," Inman tells the adult guinea pigs. "It's designed to build confidence." In fact, Inman invites parents into school on Wednesdays to practice the tests with their kids. Fifty-seven parents have done so this year. The practicing reduces test anxiety. She doesn't say whether the anxiety being reduced was parental or student. "This is harder than the stuff I had to learn in fifth grade," offers Shelly Inman, who's student-teaching at Jacksonville Elementary (and no relation to the Kennedy principal). How did I do? I missed one. Question 1, the cinchy subtraction problem about Bobbie and Linda and their stickers. A common mistake, says Scull. Kids often get nervous and make silly errors on early questions. They do better as the butterflies settle. I'm not a kid. I'm a deadline-seasoned professional. But I suppose that in some recess of my brain lurks the remnants of that 11-year-old kid who chewed No. 2 pencils 30 years ago in Mrs. Cleary's class at Sherwood Heights Elementary. Later, I show the exam to my sixth-grade daughter, a test veteran who scans the questions and pronounces only a couple at all difficult. Then Emily sees the fine print confirmation: It is a test for fifth-graders! I mean, Dad, like, puhleeze. "It's fifth grade," she says with a practiced 12-year-old eye roll. "It's easy!" Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA