The main problem with iReady is the length of the tests and the fact that students are not being tested to their best abilities. Precautions have been made to counteract some of these ongoing issues; however, this has not completely solved the problem.
The “quality of life” features iReady offers don’t do much but add to one’s suffering when you realize that there are more questions than the Star Renaissance testing thanks to the progress bar and that the breathing exercises are arguably the biggest waste of time.
The breathing exercises consist of a blue balloon guiding you through activities of mindfulness and meditation. This activity occurs multiple times throughout the test and lasts for several minutes. When I first encountered this exercise I lost my train of thought which made it difficult for me to rebuild a consistent pace to answer the questions.
Many can relate and agree that these features really serve no strong purpose in helping iReady’s mission of accurately reflecting academic performance. These “quality of life features” and extended testing duration provide no incentive to do that.
The final resort that iReady had up their sleeve to complete their goal was to add a pacing system to the testing engine. This mechanism made it so that if a student was rushing the test they would be sent back to the start of the test for not taking the test seriously.
Even with this system alone, a student could still finish the test at a slower pace and not accurately reflect their academic performance. The problem is there’s no benefit or consequence for getting a question right or wrong so there’s no incentive for students to test accurately.
Star Renaissance testing used to only take a day to finish, but iReady has had many students take multiple days to complete it. Some are even being summoned out of class to complete the test as teachers could no longer make time for it. This whole process is not just affecting the students’ sanity, but also the teachers’ learning curriculums.
Ironically, despite this seemingly long test that iReady provides it averages out to about the same length of the Star Renaissance test and IAB test combined. Unfortunately, both Star Renaissance and IAB testing are being replaced with iReady to use as the main testing curriculums which makes for prolonged testing periods instead of shorter tests. Making students take this test in one sitting rather than multiple periods of time can make the testing experience feel awfully longer.
It goes without saying that iReady was not an improvement for the mandatory district test that students take every semester. Regardless of the features and systems that come with the new program, students are just using this program to waste time and test inaccurately.
