I spend way too much time thinking about standardized testing. Part of the reason why is because the state administered End of Grade tests became a large part of my life when I worked at a local public middle school. During my last few years working in this school, I witnessed curricular decisions, faculty management decisions, programming decisions, professional development decisions, resource decisions, and scheduling decisions that were made only to optimize performance on the End of Grade tests -- principally the math and language arts tests which were the only EOGs given at that time. To some degree, students ceased to be students and became percentages within categories. I do not fault the dedicated teachers or administrators who made these decisions; they were simply playing by the rules that had been placed upon them. However, I chose not to play by those rules any more.
I really want to see value in standardized achievement tests. I want to look at them as the great equalizer -- objective, egalitarian instruments that don’t care if you are one percenter or on welfare. I want them to be the provider of opportunity and the leveler of the playing field. The problem is that in their effort to be objective, the tests must ignore the most valuable parts of being human. They must measure things that are measurable, when, in fact, this treats our children as one-dimensional shadows and ignores their humanity.
For years I have read articles and had people tell me what standardized tests measure. I’m not sure whether to believe them or not, but I do know what they don’t measure. They don’t measure the most important qualities and skills that we should value in our young people. They don’t measure someone’s ability to create -- to make something of value that hasn’t been thought of or done before. They don’t measure a persons ability to solve a novel problem by working with others. They don’t measure the ability to form and maintain relationships. They don’t measure a person’s ability to reflect on and evaluate their own place in the world. They don’t measure a person’s honesty and integrity. They don’t measure physical abilities. They don’t measure how a child interacts with the natural world. They don’t measure if someone can express emotion and feeling through the visual and performing arts. They don’t measure a child’s happiness. Truthfully, they only measure a very small part of a person, yet we have built our country’s education system as a response to these tests. How can we look at a child in such narrow terms and think we are doing the best for her?
I really want to see value in standardized achievement tests. I want to look at them as the great equalizer -- objective, egalitarian instruments that don’t care if you are one percenter or on welfare. I want them to be the provider of opportunity and the leveler of the playing field. The problem is that in their effort to be objective, the tests must ignore the most valuable parts of being human. They must measure things that are measurable, when, in fact, this treats our children as one-dimensional shadows and ignores their humanity.
For years I have read articles and had people tell me what standardized tests measure. I’m not sure whether to believe them or not, but I do know what they don’t measure. They don’t measure the most important qualities and skills that we should value in our young people. They don’t measure someone’s ability to create -- to make something of value that hasn’t been thought of or done before. They don’t measure a persons ability to solve a novel problem by working with others. They don’t measure the ability to form and maintain relationships. They don’t measure a person’s ability to reflect on and evaluate their own place in the world. They don’t measure a person’s honesty and integrity. They don’t measure physical abilities. They don’t measure how a child interacts with the natural world. They don’t measure if someone can express emotion and feeling through the visual and performing arts. They don’t measure a child’s happiness. Truthfully, they only measure a very small part of a person, yet we have built our country’s education system as a response to these tests. How can we look at a child in such narrow terms and think we are doing the best for her?
Wonderful, wonder post. I am an activist against standardized testing. The picture you chose is a wonderful representation of true learning vs learning to pass a test. Did you create it?
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