My prayers and sympathies are with those taking and those relying on the results of the STARS and EOC tests today as indicators in teaching qualities and learners achievements. AND so much thankfulness we are not among them. As we learn this morning over bacon and Cinnabons and we begin with the littles taking turns reading and discussing our Bible lesson, I am once again thankful for choices. Individualized training with its multiple and varies alternative approaches cannot always be accurately measured on standardized testing. Do I as a parent utilize these scores? Do I measure my childs success by percentiles? The biasing of these scores are considered as a part of the overall picture and often MY approach in teaching changes NOT my childs ranking or ability to move forward when properly prepared and knowledgable ready. The past several years have made me much less courageous in openly supporting even those issues most dear and which I most passionately support or oppose. However, this specific movement in the use of high stakes achievement testing is too significant not only for those I love but our entire future society for me to sit quietly unbiased. Testing should never be punitive, testing should be for diagnostic purposes and not for the purpose of inflicting harm to either the learner or the one attempting to teach. Individual testing scores should be used as an individual learner / teacher measuring stick to target needed improvements, not as a weapon against kids doing their best based on a variety of different starting points AND a multitude of variable are anything but standardized. Standardized tests measure only a small portion of what makes education meaningful. According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD, qualities that standardized tests cannot measure include creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, integrity. [147] Instruction time is being consumed by monotonous test preparation. Some schools allocate more than a quarter of the years instruction to test prep. [Kozol] After New York Citys reading and math scores plunged in 2010, many schools imposed extra measures to avoid being shut down, including daily two and a half hour prep sessions and test practice on vacation days. [14] On Sep. 11, 2002, students at Monterey High School in Lubbock, TX, were prevented from discussing the first anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks because they were too busy with standardized test preparation. [15] The multiple-choice format used on standardized tests is an inadequate assessment tool. It encourages a simplistic way of thinking in which there are only right and wrong answers, which doesnt apply in real-world situations. The format is also biased toward male students, who studies have shown adapt more easily to the game-like point scoring of multiple-choice questions. [77] America is facing a creativity crisis, as standardized testing and rote learning dumb down curricula and jeopardize the countrys economic future. A 2010 College of William & Mary study found Americans scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking have been dropping since 1990, and researcher Kyung-Hee Kim lays part of the blame on the increase in standardized testing: If we neglect creative students in school because of the structure and the testing movement... then they become underachievers. [133] Using test scores to reward and punish teachers and schools encourages them to cheat the system for their own gain. [117] A 2011 USA Today investigation of six states and Washington DC found 1,610 suspicious anomalies in year-over-year test score gains. [26] An obsession with testing robs children of their childhoods. NCLBs mandate begins in third grade, but schools test younger students so they will get used to taking tests. [13] Mar. 2009 research from the Alliance for Childhood showed time for play in most public kindergartens has dwindled to the vanishing point, replaced by lengthy lessons and standardized testing. [21] A three-year study completed in Oct. 2010 by the Gesell Institute of Human Development showed that increased emphasis on testing is making children feel like failures now as early as PreK... [20] So the question remains, is the use of standardized testing improving education? I for one must vote no.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 14:45:32 +0000