- Virginia Harper
- Fort Myers, FL
- United States
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Are we bombarding our students with too many standardized tests in school?
The DOE plans to add 9 tests to the school year in most states who are already testing their students from elementary to high school with State Standradized tests tied to enbdless benchmarks, standards, and rules. Is it time to step back and really look at who is in our classrooms? Is testing teaching? Are we spinning our wheels and turning out students who can't answer deeply about any subject much lerss read and analyze data?
Erik Richardson 500+
Austin R 20+
Scott Armstrong 50+
We need to be less obsessed with measuring, full stop. It was never really for the learner's benefit anyway, just makes the ministry's number juggling a bit more manageable.
I agree that the standard you mentioned sounds ridiculous. But I expect nothing less from bureaucrats. Nothing is forcing the kids to take that credit (or is there?) in which case, we might hope that all the rhetoric about "ownership" will have rubbed off enough that the student feels empowered to choose the more taxing and ultimately more rewarding (substantial?) credit.
When I say content, I mean from a curriculum point of view rather than specific teacher knowledge and experience.
Individual teacher passion and enthusiasm for a subject/topic is the only thing that counts. If you can get a student excited about anything and they can get some kind of momentum going that will sustain them until they are free of school then the job is done regardless of their test scores or credits.
I've not seen any government that exercises any kind of thought beyond a columns and rows approach to education. We are restricted by models, not guided by them.
I continue to have faith in the individuals involved in education and continue to expect disappointment and predictability from the ministry.
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
Scott Armstrong 50+
Lee Wilkinson 20+
Scott Armstrong 50+
Alexander Wiedemann
A prime example of this is in the realm of mathematics. We tell our students to memorize this thing called a "quadratic formula," whatever that is, and tell them if they put the numbers in like this, they'll get the answer out like that. How many teachers stop to explain to their students why this formula is useful? How many of our teachers even know? (To the something like 95% of students who don't even need to take/use Calculus, at any point in their life, is learning this formula even useful?)
I am currently enrolled in college and see firsthand the negative impact that these tests have caused. It pains me to see that my classmates aren't here to learn--they're here to pass their finals. I almost want to smack them when they ask "Do you think that'll be on the test?" I don't know, maybe it will... does it matter? I'm here to get an education, so that I can use that education to further my professional goals--I am not here to pass the final.
Which brings me to my actual point.
I strongly believe testing is required, for obvious reasons, but we need to radically rethink our method. Courses, on all levels of education, need to be aimed at education, not at test-taking skills. If students know and understand the material, they will be able to take the test. We need to get out of this dogmatic mindset that the point of school is to teach children facts, and realize that we should be teaching them concepts and ideas.
To answer your question, "is testing teaching?" No. Testing is not teaching--Teaching is teaching. We should move back toward that.
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Alexander Wiedemann
[To avoid a hasty generalization, I will say that many schools and teachers are making great progress in fixing these problems. I should have said that many schools are not emphasizing applicable problems enough.]
Maybe I'm slanting my ideals towards what I believe is wrong with numeracy curricula, but I believe the same concepts can be applied to the other subjects as well.
Vincine Fallica
If train A is traveling at 45 mph, and cashews are $3.27 a pound, and the wind is blowing North by Northeast; and you have 257 square feet of wall to paint;
What color are the engineer’s socks?
A problem with education is that ALL of the knowledge is taught as if it was academic, and so the education system can’t even tell any more what’s academic and what’s practical, what’s important and what’s not. So everything is taught as if it was important, and the students are reduced to just trying to get through the system, because most really don’t what an education, they’re just looking for what amounts to job training.
The other thing is, facts are easier to test, and bureaucracies like things that are easy, so testing is the preferred way to quantify results.
That is doesn’t really serve the students well is irrelevant.
Daniel Honker
Much of the increase in standardized testing has come from the federal level, though much has come from states as well. First, politicians at this level, in both parties, see a need to reform education, and are interested in "accountability." If they're going to put taxpayer dollars into education, these leaders want to make sure the funds are spent most efficiently. This means evaluating performance across 100 million students, and many then take the logical leap that this must mean standardized, quantitative metrics. Moreover, "accountability" means we can't tolerate experiments that might result in failure or inefficient use of funds.
Second, I believe this issue is compounded by the short-term focus of many politicians at the federal level. With a two-year term, they are under pressure to show instant results and terminate those efforts that aren't showing fruit.
It's hard to expect education -- an intensely local issue -- to improve with these issues and incentives at play. However, the efforts the Obama administration has made to fund pilot programs and essentially "experiments" in education look promising.
Vincine Fallica
I would like to see additional methods of evaluation; ‘Portfolio review’, ‘dissertation type defenses’, things that would serve to illustrate how students have exercised and practiced their ability to think and reason through a problem or situation. Not just an inventory of what facts the child has memorized. I’d like to see students’ responses to open ended questions and to problems that don’t have necessarily correct answers.
Of course this would mean a much more extensive and involved education evaluation system. It would mean expending a LOT more resources on the education itself. It would mean a budget for an educational system that’s more like our Defense Department budget. (And I don’t mean to imply that there isn’t a whole lot of waste in the DoD budget .)
I think as a society, we confuse effectiveness with so called efficiency. Testing is a cost effective mechanism that provides a number. Cost effectiveness of obtaining the number often becomes more important than the purpose of what the number is being obtained for.
Well, if you really want to save money, then just eliminate the education system entirely. And stop this pretense of doing something in the interest of children & benefit for the society, when it’s often really for the benefit of the bureaucracy.
I think standardized testing often leads to standardized teaching. Standardized teaching, as if all students are the same size, is an oxymoron. I think education should be more like having clothes tailor made, and less like a one size fits all garment.
Lee Wilkinson 20+
Scott Armstrong 50+
Aren't the qualifications requirement for teachers enough? Professionalism? Internal appraisal systems? Ministry visits? Formal and Informal reflection practice? Evidence pages?
If you want to know the value of an ed-system, then ask the student for their thoughts - everything else is someone else's (irrelevant) interpretation.
"Standardised" teaching is a result of rampant bureaucracy, tradition for the sake of it, parents not taking responsibility for their role in teaching their kids and NOT ENOUGH MONEY.
"Experience seems to most of us to lead to conclusions, but empiricism has sworn never to draw them."
George Santayana.
Lee Wilkinson 20+
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Lee Wilkinson 20+
Scott Armstrong 50+
Do you question a qualified doctor for following protocols handed down by the ministry of health?
If parents have kids at school, they could take responsibility for finding out how they are doing by going and talking to the relevant people, child included.
Unless they find it more convenient to get a one-pager summary of test results...
What essential topic do you think needs to be included in the national curriculum, Richard? Bear in mind that content delivery is a bit redundant in these days of wires and words.
Lee Wilkinson 20+
Julie Ann 10+
Lee Wilkinson 20+