All fifth-grade students in New York state take a social studies test in November. This test is designed to measure the success with which students are mastering the five New York State Social Studies Learning Standards. Material from the third- and fourth-grade learning standards is tested.

The standards require that third-grade students study world cultures. In fourth-grade, students focus primarily on the history of New York state.

The first and second sections are given the first day. Part I and II contain 35 multiple choice questions, which offer four choices.

Students learn that two of the choices will be wrong and the correct response will be one of the two remaining choices. Students learn to sort how the correct response is more correct.

The second part of the first day's exam requires answers called constructed responses. A map, a graph or chart is given.

Students must answer several questions using the information provided in the graphic and their knowledge of social studies.

These sentences must be grammatically correct and answer the question. Answers can be factual, requiring the student to read and find the correct answer.

The answer may also require logic or the application of previous learning.

For example, in a constructed response question related to a chart of the three branches of the government, the student is asked to state why the powers of the state and national governments are divided into three branches.

Part III of the test presents four or more historical documents that the student must read. Short answer questions are presented following each document. The answers to these questions are intended to assist the student in writing the essay for the second part of the Part III exam.

An example is a series of newspaper articles written about New York City and the melting pot of cultures that has existed there since before the Civil War.

Students read articles describing “Little Germany,” a St. Patrick's Day parade and an article about the industries of immigrant New York City. The students wrote about how the different groups of immigrants lived, worked and took pride in their cultures when they came to New York.

Their essay required evidence of organized thinking, a background knowledge of social studies and an ability to present their ideas in a well constructed essay.

Ninety minutes are permitted each day for completion of the tests.

Students are permitted to draft ideas and use scrap paper for this test, but those pieces of paper must be included with the student's test booklet, to assist the scorers.

The multiple-choice questions will be scored using an answer key. The short answer constructed response questions are scored with a question specific scoring guide called a rubric. The rubric score for this portion of the exam can be from a zero to a three.

The Document Based Essay Question is scored using a four-point rubric system and is based on the student's thinking and writing skills in the area of social studies.

The final test score is based upon a four-point rubric where four is the exemplary and students show evidence of mastering the standards at that grade level. At the opposite end, a score of one indicates a student is at risk and will need extra support to meet the standards.

To prepare, students review content from their previous two years. They also prepare by learning about the design of this test.

Here at Millard Fillmore Elementary School, our students work through half a prepared study guide in fourth grade.

They complete the study guides in the beginning of fifth grade, emphasizing the function of our government and take some practice tests that help them understand the format of the tests.

Trivia games, social studies “bees” and vocabulary building promote student success and are enjoyable ways for the students to brush up on facts. Kathy Curry, one of Moravia's teacher aides, finds this process very interesting and helpful for the students.

I spoke with Vickie Green, a veteran fifth-grade teacher here. I asked her if she thought taking this test improved student performance in the long run. I admit here that I anticipated that she would respond “no” because of test anxiety, the retention of material learned “for the test.”

Yet her answer surprised me.

“Oh my, yes. They take this to heart and yes, we play games to prepare. But they take ownership of this work. It's important to these 10- and 11-year-olds to do well,” she said. “They understand how our government began with the Iroquois Confederacy and how our government has developed. It's a great way to help them take responsibility for their learning.”

Students had varied reactions to taking their test.

Miranda Withers stated, “I didn't think it was too bad, because we studied on Monday and played a trivia game. The constructed response was a little tricky. You had to read paragraphs, and you had to use your knowledge of social studies.”

Josh Campanella said, “It was fairly hard. The hard part for me is the reading and writing. I can do better if there are options.”

Trent Jones added, “I got nervous and there were two answers for one question.” And Autumn Wells agreed, “I think it was kind of hard because there were two possible answers.”

Taking tests is a fact of life for students in New York state.

Here at Moravia, we are committed to having each student feel successful as they wend their way through New York state exams.

Pat Kinney is an art teacher at Millard Fillmore Elementary School in Moravia