It’s springtime across America, and the familiar sounds fill the air — birds chirping in the early hours, the cracks of baseball bats on opening day and classrooms filled with utter silence. It’s testing time, one of my least-favorite times of year as an educator and as a parent of elementary school-aged children.
This past week, I proctored the SAT in the high school where I work, East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. Simultaneously, my daughter was on her last day of a 2-week elementary school-required exam called the Illinois Assessment of Readiness. It’s my 18th year administering a state exam in the Chicagoland area, and my first time being a parent of a child taking one.
