Since I have lived and had children in school in the state of Indiana, the state standardized testing has been in the fall. This meant that students would be tested on the material that they had learned the previous year and had probably forgotten over the summer. The result was that schools tended to spend the first month of school reviewing, because those almighty tests were coming.
Of course, since these standardized tests tend to cover the minimum standards that children should know, those student who already had mastered the material and moved beyond these basic standards, were still subjected to a month of review of material that was not at all relevant to their ability to pass these state tests, thus wasting (in my view) a month of school preparing for testing.
Then, someone, in the hierarchy of the state educational system decided that the tests should be moved to the spring. This makes more sense to me since the students are in school, prior to the test and will be tested on what they have learned thus far in the school year. So, the move is a good thing. What is not a good thing is that this year, is a transition year and so, all Indiana students in grades 3 through 8 had to take the state test in the fall and are now preparing to take the new spring test, in just a few weeks.
AND since schools are required to triangulate student data, they also give other tests to judge student achievement. And so, this year seems to be one long series of tests and preparation for said tests. And I have to wonder if there is any actual learning going on? I have to wonder if this data driven score collection actually serves to help educate our children? For sure they should be comfortable taking tests. But, how does this help students to think beyond the rigidity of state standards? How does this challenge our brightest students to reach for more? How does this help our struggling students ever reach the bar that equals a passing score?
In the end, a student’s test score is just a number. In the end, a school’s passing rate is just another number with a percent sign in front of it. And neither number is a reliable indicator of student or school success. In the end, teachers and parents and communities are what make the difference in children’s lives. And maybe, just maybe, we should be spending a little less money on testing and a little more on giving parents and teachers the skills and the tools they need to help build healthy children.
by In The Fast Lane
Photo graciously provided by Merelymel 13, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
2 responses so far ↓
Thimbelle // Feb 18, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Grrrr… Don’t even get me started on “state testing”. Here in our home state, some genius at the state level decided that it would be a great idea to give the test in the fall – as a “practice” test and then RE-GIVE the test again “for real” in the spring.
:::headdesk:::
The result is that the kids are burned out on testing, and the teachers are sick of “teaching to the test”.
The big problem I have with standardized testing is that the only thing it really can tell you is how well a child does filling in a bubble. That’s it. Just as everyone learns differently, everyone tests differently too. And someone who is an auditory learner may do much better with a verbal test, where they HEAR the questions and SAY the answers. A child who is a visual learner might test better if they watched a video, then answered questions about the video.
If I were in charge of the world (And someday, I hope to be Supreme Empress for just ONE day!) then I would completely restructure the educational system. Children – students of all ages – would be evaluated for their learning style. Students would be grouped by “auditory learners”, “visual learners”, “hands-on learners”, etc. Testing would not be about forcing the memorization of material, as it is now – but would show that the student KNOWS the material well enough to FIND the answers to the questions in their textbook and notes. Because that’s a skill that we all use in the Real Adult World every day. And that’s what we need to teach our students.
InTheFastLane // Feb 19, 2009 at 6:26 am
Thimbelle – I very much agree. And when you become Supreme Empress – I would also like student education to be matched with their abilities. So, the bright kids aren’t bored and the struggling kids are not struggling quite so much as both ends of the spectrum are right now because education is geared to the imaginary “middle.”
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