32 Third Graders Series: Testing
“You don’t like these tests?” I asked. “You don’t want to do these tests? Don’t you realize that these scores are published in the newspaper and parents and real estate agents everywhere look at these scores? Don’t you realize that your parents’ property values are affected if you don’t know how to find the diameter of a circle?” … Why do we continue to give these tests? I ask myself. And why are we placing more and more value on them every year? We know that they do no accurately measure what a child really knows. We know that they do not indicate how well a child is doing in school.”
I have a fiery hatred for standardized testing. Let’s go beyond the fact that they don’t really test what they are trying to test. Let’s look at the consequences of testing on schools, students, teachers, parents, and communities.
We have set a system that rewards school systems for good test scores. So what happens when the scores are not the greatest? First of all, the school gets put on probation under NCLB if it has not improved its scores from last year. (Let’s not even mention the fact that the same students do not attend the same schools year to year) Second, the school loses out on funding. Funding that could be used to add a staff position that could work with students who are behind. Finally, if parents admit to their child going to a failing school, imagine the looks from others.
Student who earn low scores miss out on scholarship money and even the ability to participate in extracurricular activities. Is this the best way to fix the situation? Seems to me that all we are doing is making those students feel punished for not achieving on a test that’s flawed to begin with.
What about the content of the tests? We make students cram things like geometry, spatial recognition, analogies, reading comprehension. etc. All good subjects to master. Very useful subjects for continued education. However, why do we cut out everything else? Is it not important to know the basic concepts within our Constitution? Is it not important to understand the basic structures of the human body? Is it not important to know the difference between a quart and a pint? I feel the standardized tests that we rely on are very narrow minded. I prefer things like the ACT that some college bound students take. Gives a much more well-rounded educational assessment. Maybe that can be my life goal… create a standardized test that actually aligns with the standards, but still gives a good idea of what the student learned over the course of the past year.
I think teachers have it worst of all. They have to plan all the lessons around the tests. How boring! Are they able to create inventive lesson plans addressing multiple learning styles playing off of student strengths and weaknesses? No, they have to teach students to read the question and bubble in the answer. No wonder students fall asleep in class. I am a great test taker, but even I get sleepy when faced with a Scantron sheet with hundreds of bubbles.
Hopefully we, as a country, can wake up and realize that the current system is flawed and employ the innovative ideas that I know exist. Until then I will just continue to hate standardized tests.
Thank god I teach social studies and only have a passing dealing with this crap.
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