So today (I’m writing on Monday) I was supposed to do a 9:00
AM test call for an upcoming video conference with some seventh graders. Lo and behold, at 8:30 AM, my screen lights
up and a harried-looking tech person appears amidst stacks of boxes. “Sorry,” she says, “but we have standardized
tests all day long today so I’m in a hurry.” Since our upcoming video conference is based on
a book I wrote about the Revolutionary War, I ask her if the students have
studied that period yet. “Not much,” she
says. “All we do in this state is test,
test, test, so the kids don’t learn a thing.”
Hmmmm….I think she was in such a hurry that she was accidentally
thinking out loud in front of a total stranger.
But she’s definitely not alone. I
hear this same complaint from teachers all the time when I visit schools.
Ever since the No
Child Left Behind Act first reared its head in 2002, kids in have had to take tons
of standardized tests, and if they don’t do well, their schools pay the piper. They stand to lose federal funding and free
tutoring and worse. These tests cover
a very narrow part of the curriculum, but they supposedly show whether kids are
learning or not, whether their teachers are any good, whether students have to
take even more mind-numbing skill-and-drill classes in summer school, and whether
they will stay awake long enough to pass to the next grade. Cheating is common—even
some teachers and principals cheat by upping the test scores because teachers
and principals can get fired or get a fat raise depending upon the results. Kids are bored to death or stress
out over these tests. And nobody is having any fun.
The worst part is
that so much invaluable class time is spent teaching to the tests at the
expense of every single thing that can get kids excited about learning. Who wants to sit in a chair all day long and study
from some dry-as-dust standardized test prep book just to keep their school out
of trouble? And as updated more “interesting”
tests get progressively harder, even more test prep is in the works.
Ahem. Ladies and
gentlemen, there are better ways to teach and there are better ways to learn. Why
would anyone want to give up creative hands-on activities or ignore great music
and art and foreign languages and amazing stories from history just so that
they can mark the right box on a test form?
Who want to cut out class trips, whether they’re to the school library
(to find some great nonfiction books, of course) or to some outstanding museums or to the great outdoors? What
is happening to young peoples’ health when physical education and even recess
give way to studying for the tests? What if a class wants to explore a certain
topic in depth? In many schools, plenty
of such worthwhile and beloved activities are on the chopping block.
Even the best
teachers have trouble raising test scores under certain conditions. In some
places kids can come to school hungry. Some neighborhoods are like revolving
doors where students come and go all the time. Plenty of parents are overworked
or jobless or have other problems that keep them from getting involved with
their kids’ education in any way. If students have recently moved here from
foreign countries and are not fluent in English, they will fare poorly on the
tests no matter how smart they are. But
the tests reflect none of this. They don’t
show a thing about individual student progress or whether kids can think
creatively or whether they have good critical thinking skills or whether they
love to learn.
But at least someone
is thinking creatively out there. I loved this article entitled Eighth
grader designs standardized test that slams standardized tests. Its your homework, so of course you have to read
it.
1 comment:
That test the 8th grader made is brilliant! I remember taking about 3 or 4 standardized tests in 12 grades of school. They took less than one day each.
The tests now are started too young and are weighted far too heavily by everyone, including kids who feel condemned as stupid if they don't test as well in some areas. The logical reason for this uber-testing craze is financial...follow the money.
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