Trim the Tests
Someone in the state’s educational establishment has finally shown some sense about testing.
Oh my goodness, I found an article bashing standardized testing! YES! haha I did not think that was possible, but while looking through my feed on standardized testing, I came across this article from the Winston-Salem Journal that explains that standardized testing is BAD.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accountability has recommended that the State Board of Education significantly reduce the number of standardized tests that our children take in the public schools.
The commission agreed that the fourth-, seventh-, and tenth-grade writing tests should be eliminated as well as the eighth-grade computer skills tests. They also suggested that five end-of-course exams for high school students should be cut, leaving only five exams total. That’s a little better, haha.
The commission also stated that there is even better news; that two of the science exams scheduled to being this year will NOT be counted for state purposes.
Let’s face the facts. This wave of testing that started a dozen or so years ago is designed for one purpose-to give politicians cover. The tests have little to do with educating children. In truth, they probably harm the education our children get. And all the testing, especially in the early grades, helps make our children crazy with stress.
Politicians began calling for more exams as a way of demonstrating that the schools were improving. But a child’s education is not like a potted plant’s growth pattern. It can’t be measured with definite precision. That’s why teachers often count many factors into a child’s grade-not just test results but also classroom contributions, homework, originality and creativity.
STANDARDIZED TESTS DON’T MEASURE WHETHER A CHILD IS CREATIVE OR IMAGINATIVE. THEY MEASURE ONLY WHETHER THE CHILD CAN SPIT BACK WHAT THE SCHOOL HAS FED HIM OR HER.
AMEN! haha Wow I love whoever wrote this article. Because the tests are so specific in what the students need to learn, the teachers are obligated to teach them only what is called for on the tests. That leaves no room for broadening their imaginations, let alone the teacher’s. When the standardized test results are so important, the curriculum of the school becomes focused on the test. Teachers are told by the school administrators what to teach and when to teach it. What’s the fun in that? By doing that, we are not engaging young minds to learn and we are definitely not encouraging them to want to learn if they are being forced to learn. And what about the students who are not great test takers? They may be excellent learners and strongly understand the material being taught, but as soon as a test is placed in front of them, they get nervous and freeze up. That is no way to grade a student. As the article mentioned, teachers look for other factors when grading a child, not just how they perform on tests. I think this is something we should really take into consideration, and the commission should, too!
This next quote from the article really shocked me.
The orgy of standardized testing requirements has also diminished the value of teachers. Political candidates seek teachers’ votes with empty words about teacher professionalism, but then take away much of their professional discretion to teach children.
Umm…..I’m not even sure how to respond to this. It’s kind of contradicting or hypocritical of itself. Teachers are given the power to teach children, but then it’s taken away…how does that work? I will end with this from the article which I believe best sums up what standardized tests do:
There is one person in the school system who knows better than everyone in the world whether little Johnny has learned how to read and calculate this year, and that is his teacher. Even mom and dad probably won’t know as well as the teacher. Yet the teacher’s judgment is stripped away by the standardized exam and, if Johnny tends to freeze up on exams, then the state says he can’t read. This is simply foolish.
I’m really curious as to what other people have to say about this topic. I will say this, during middle school and high school was the time when most of us are obligated to take these horrible, pointless tests. When I was in middle school and high school, I never had an opinion on these tests, one being the MEAP. Sure I knew that the school basically FORCED students to take this test so that they can look good if we all pass, but that was about it. I never thought about how the tests only grade us on what the school was teaching us. The tests do not grade us on how well we have learned, but how well the school was teaching us. How does that help our own education? …
Winston-Salem Journal
Friday, November 30, 2007
Carrie
