Benchmark tests consume personnel and paper

Three classroom assistants called paras work four and a half hours in each of the four Upper Elementary classrooms at Denison.  None of us who act as lead teachers have figured out quite how this works, much less the assistants; but most of the time one of those helpers checks in with me sometime during the morning to see if I have clerical work and another spends two hours in my classroom during the afternoon.  On Mondays I ask her to help organize the homework folders that go home on Monday afternoon.  Today there was no help from anyone.  Occasionally either Assistant #1 or #2 would appear at the door to let me know that they were unavailable because they were making all the copies of the various test booklets, answer sheets, manuals, and scoring sheets required for the Benchmark Assessments to be given this week.  During the last five minutes of the day, the students and I hastily assembled the homework folders.  One assistant I met after school was carrying a huge bag of papers home to sort so that she “could figure out how many of each kind” she still needed.  Imagine the paper being consumed!  For me it was a day without any kind of assistance, and it was Monday—an unfortunate combination of conditions.  I heard rumors that the assistants would be needed throughout the week to assist with the testing.  Just another price to be paid by the students—and me.