Musings about Standardized Testing

This morning at school we were informed that we'd be giving the national standardized test, Enlace, today. I was assigned a group of 41 students and a room that is not where I usually teach. After arriving to the classroom with my group, I was told to go downstairs to the teachers' room to pick up my materials. As the young woman from the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) counted out the materials, the teachers read a photocopied explanation of the instructions for proctoring the exam. By 8:30 (an hour later) I was back in the classroom handing out the testing booklet and the scantron forms. I'm not quite sure what my group of kids did while I was gone, but no one was injured!
Our goal for the day was to complete four sections of the test with 45 minutes alloted for each section. The students are tested on Spanish, Math, and Civic Education. The first section went well with most students using a substantial amount of the alloted time - which, to me, means that they are trying to answer the questions the best they can. At the end of this 45 minute period, the SEP representative came into the room and told us to ignore the time periods and to just continue to work our way through the following three sections. I'm not sure why they decided to informalize the test taking process. Maybe I'm a product of the test taking culture in California, but it seems that a set amount of time for test sections helps students focus and then take a brain break in between tests.
About 4 kids obviously just filled in the bubbles, even after I encouraged them to do their best and take it slowly. Soon, more than half the kids had finished. Needless to say, even after 8 months with these kids, I still have not mastered keeping Mexican middle schoolers quiet!! They are INCREDIBLY social and are not accustomed to having to be still for a period of time. Although I coughed up a simple extra credit assignment to keep them occupied, I still struggled to keep the environment suitable for testing. (Maybe if Fulbright gave me another year here I'd be able to get this down!!)
There was a parent volunteer in each classroom today. They were there to observe the test proctoring to make sure that there were no testing abnormalities. I guess there have been many circumstances where teachers help the students on the test, so they wanted to make sure this wasn't happening. A colleague of mine was really offended by their presence.
Jacob, my son, also took the Enlace exam today in his 4th grade class. At home in California, he is trained to take these exams really seriously since his school has put so much enfasis on the results. He was upset today after school because he wasn't able to finish one of the sections. He said that the kids in class were making so much noise that he wasn't able to concentrate. (I can relate!!) Also, he is accustomed to having unlimited time to finish this type of standardized test.
Anyways, it was interesting to see the difference in the testing process here. I think that it is good that the SEP is interested in collecting this data. The next step will be improve the organization of the test administration and to teach kids to take it seriously.