Teacher’s Note on Standardized Testing Reminds Students They Are More Than a Test Score

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 | March 21, 2016 | By Margo Gothelf

Standardized testing in public school is a tricky topic. Many public schools make it their main focus, trying to prove their school’s worth. However, due to the stress and preparation for these tests, it leaves little room for creativity and fun in the classroom, according to many critics.

One Third Grade teacher from Indiana is trying to redefine how her students feel about standardized tests, explaining it doesn’t measure their worth.

When Abby Martin picked her son up from school, she was touched by a sweet note her son’s teacher handed out to her students to lift their spirits before the tests.

The note the teacher shared told her students that the standardized test scores could “not asses all of what makes you special and unique.”

Rylan got in the car today and told me he was embarrassed because he cried at school. I asked him what upset him, and he told me he cried because he was happy about a letter his teacher gave his class before they take ISTEP. Needless to say, when I read it, I cried too. We need not just more teachers like her, but also more people like her in this world. “These tests do not define you. There are many ways of being smart. YOU are smart! YOU are enough! You are the light that brightens my day and the reason I am happy to come to work each day. So, in the midst of all these tests, remember that there is no way to “test” all of the amazing and awesome things that make you, YOU.”

A photo posted by Abby Martin (@absmarti) on Feb 26, 2016 at 3:05pm PST

“The people who create these tests … do not know each of you like I do, and certainly not the way your families do,” Martin’s teacher shared. “The scores you will get from these tests will tell you something, but they will not tell you everything. These tests do not define you. There are many ways of being smart. You are smart!”

Both Marin and her son were touched by the kind gesture that the teacher went out of her way to share.

“Rylan got in the car today and told me he was embarrassed because he cried at school,” Martin posted on Instagram. “I asked him what upset him, and he told me he cried because he was happy about a letter his teacher gave his class before they take ISTEP. Needless to say, when I read it, I cried too.”

Because of the note, it seems that Rylan will have more confidence when going to take the test. Martin expressed her gratitude for the confidence boast, hoping for more people like Rylan’s teacher in the world.

“We need not just more teachers like her, but also more people like her in the world,” Martin wrote.