There has been much debate over the past few weeks about Gov. Bev Perdue’s recent decision to support the elimination of four standardized end-of-course tests in North Carolina high schools. Perdue argues that students are tested too much and this change will bring schools into alignment with an educational shift that is happening throughout the country — teaching students to think instead of regurgitating information.
Some opponents to Perdue’s decision contend that the tests are needed in order to assess what students are learning, while others state that they are needed in order to assess the effectiveness of teachers. Superior Court Judge Howard Manning even argues that eliminating those four standardized tests may be unconstitutional. According to a report in The Charlotte Observer, “Manning, who manages carrying out the results of a public school funding lawsuit, has written a memo saying the test results are needed to monitor whether children are getting the ‘sound basic education’ the state Supreme Court ruled is required by the North Carolina constitution.”
Despite the question of its constitutionality, which is a real factor, “teaching to the test” has not proven to be beneficial to students. As a professor, I can speak about the real outcome of teaching to the test: disconnected students who lack confidence in their opinions or critical thoughts.
Many of our students are bored out of their minds because of this linear approach to learning and are grade-obsessed to boot. Questions like, “What do I have to do to get an ‘A’?” are commonplace or wanting to know exactly every detail of an assignment, no matter how clearly explained. For example, I may give them a short paper topic asking them to use MLA format and at least two secondary sources. Inevitably, I will get questions like, “What are the exact sources that we should use?” “What exactly do you want in the paper?” Basically, they are missing one of the main points of higher education, which is learning to think critically about a variety of subjects in order to develop informed opinions and insight about important issues.
Sometimes in life there is no right or wrong answer — just an informed opinion that is reached based on a diverse, interconnected and meaningful knowledge base. Standardized tests do allow one to measure certain areas of knowledge, but focusing on them to the exclusion of other forms of analysis or measurement is a mistake. Like other school systems, North Carolina is not eliminating standardized tests altogether — it is just decreasing the number of tests that students have to take, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Yes we want students to rise to the occasion of being challenged, but should it include angst and pressure about performing well on one test as opposed to performing well throughout the semester?
Therein lies the rub. Standardized testing has created a culture of distraught students and teachers who are so consumed with the testing, that there is little focus on the day-to-day experience of the student learner. It has been proven time and time again that standardized tests are created with certain biases, are often flawed in design, and really do not measure achievement or ability relative to the ways in which the scores are actually used. No one test, standardized or other, should be the sole basis for determining the achievement of a student.
Students need to know how to think for themselves, have confidence in their ability to construct a coherent and informed argument and convey their thoughts and ideas in a way that creates a meaningful academic experience. Teachers need to have some flexibility in the ways in which they connect with students, engage them in the learning process and ensure that they are able to compete on a level that could never be measured solely by a standardized test. Standardized tests have some value, but they are not the end all to be all. It’s about time we realized that as a school system and as a nation. Perhaps the reason that American students are “falling behind” other student populations is because of our unwillingness to try something new or different or dare say it — go back to teaching styles and pedagogical approaches that were effective before standardized testing was introduced.
One thing’s for sure, if we don’t want American children left behind, we have to do something other than what has become the norm.
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2011.
The argument about biased tests are weak. People have gone to great lengths to eliminate biases. The only reasonable baises are ones based on physical limitations. The racial biases the just BS. I also find it hard to see how a math test could be biased hehe.
I think teaching to the test is mainly a problem created by teachers. Just teach the material you are supposed to teach and how you would normally teach and let the chips fall where they may. If you are being to forced to teach in a boring way then it is the department of educations fault and it should be disbanded.
I agree that tests are not the end all be all but they really are a good indicator of where most kids stand. If a kid cannot read and write I think we have enough information to say that he is in trouble.
The main problems with testing that I know of are. Timed tests, I always had trouble answering all of the questions in the time alotted. I always felt this was BIASED against people who write slow or work slow for whatever reason. I remember running out of time on the GRE in several areas. What I answered I tended to get right but I had to quickly guess at several answers near the end.
I think some of the junk taught in school gets kind of off topic or political. Many great things in history are glossed over. Instead of learning about how thanksgiving got started our kids get to learn about how whitey mowed down the indians. Some of these things may have happened but odd ball things are not what the kids are going to be tested on or expected to know is everyday life.
Who is stopping us from trying different things? The teacher’s unions are the biggest force holding kids back from trying different things. In order to keep the money flowing into the union coffers any talk of charter schools or letting private school educate some of our kids are quickly shot down.
When I just studied my class material in a timely manner, I was not stressed out at test time. Just teach the kids and the grades will take are of themselves.
Something I forgot.
If teachers say one of the reasons test scores are so bad is that they are not being paid enough, then I think they are dead wrong. In fact I think the opposite is true. Back in the day when teachers made less money general test scores were better. Maybe too much money is attracting the wrong people to the profession. We are starting to get people that care more about the money than the kids perhaps?
As long as kids continue to drink fluorinated water, receive toxic thimerosol vaccines, inhale chemtrails, eat poisonous food and watch brain dead tv they will continue to fail in almost every aspect of life. We are being targeted for depopulation but Americans would rather pretend it’s not true and go back to sleep than fight because it’s too unpleasant for them to handle. How sad that children have to come into the world by parents who don’t care enough about them to face the truth? How sad that everyone speaking the truth is just a nutty conspiracy theorist? If you don’t believe in the depopulation agenda it will make you sick and kill you anyway. Your belief in it is not required for its effect to be experienced.