What can we do about testing?

We had a little visitor last week: a child going into kindergarten this month. He was excited about it, of course. There's no feeling like that again till they start driving. We told him we hoped he'd have a good year and that we knew he'd be a great student.
"I will be," he said confidently. "I'll bring you my scores."
Does your heart sink just a little at that?
Doing well on the test has become so much the focus of our classrooms that it overshadows learning how to read, making friends, riding the school bus, and all the other new experiences kids used to look forward to.
As teachers, what can we do?

• Keep it in perspective. Doing well on the test is important for the school, but it shouldn't be our students' measure of themselves. It shouldn't be our measure of our value as teachers, either. We may have to remind ourselves of that more often.
• Maintain that sense of pride. Our little visitor wasn't scared of the test. He was confident and proud to be taking it. Instead of saying, "If you don't pay attention, you're not going to do well on the test!" we can say, "This is hard, but we can get it. Then we'll ace that test!"
• Prepare. A Plus Educational has materials for the SAT 10 and the Iowa, as well as general testing skills books. Come visit us and let us help you find just the right book for your classroom, or for your own kids!