As someone who has been on the student side of things his whole life, it sort of came as a surprise to me to learn that the general consensus in America right now seems to be pro-standardized tests. From my perspective, I have hated them since day one. What kind of student enjoys having to devote weeks of class time to practicing how to take an exam? Naturally, policymakers and “education reformers” wouldn’t listen to the kids, however, because of course they’re not going to like taking an extra test or two.
I really enjoyed the documentary on standardized exams. It reminded me of the Biesta article we read a week or two ago: standardized exams generally undermine the purpose of education. As Biesta points out, that purpose or what we value in education is something to be debated, but as far as standardized exams go there is nothing up for debate. Math, reading, and sometimes science are the three pillars of education. By evaluating those three things, you can effectively describe the educational value or potential of any given student – according to the exam, of course.
One point the documentary makes is how what we are doing is making kids hate school, when, in fact, all we ever should be doing is getting them to love it. Going back to my experiences as a student in public school, I vividly remember the introduction of standardized exams. I remember it because I never remember disliking school more than in the weeks preceding and during the PSSAs. Everything we did in class would become a worksheet that resembled the actual exam we were to take in a few short weeks. We were taught exactly how to answer the prompt so that we would get full credit. What I remember most vividly, however, is not learning anything new at all. It was a halt on any actual learning for several weeks until the exam was over. Unfortunately for me, my favorite part of school was learning new things, so preparing for the standardized test was always my least favorite part of the year – it was boring. Looking back, I see my experiences as being very representative of what this documentary discusses.
Unfortunately, I also see the importance of making sure schools (and every aspect within it) are providing the best education to children. Thus, I feel like there needs to be some way of evaluating a school to make sure students aren’t falling through the cracks. Clearly, I disagree with standardized tests that focus on the hard sciences, but I am not so sure a successful alternative is easily imagined. We may really value something like a student’s artistic or creative capacity, but how do we measure that? If we completely do away with the idea of evaluating a school, how would we create a sense of accountability for each district? I agree with Biesta in that we need to begin the debate of what we truly value in education, and I would hope that this debate would go somewhere more in the direction of creativity and passion than getting the highest score on a global standardized test, but I can hardly imagine what a school system like this would look like in our society.
Comments
4 responses to “My Experiences Reflected in the Current Discussion Regarding Standardized Tests”
Zach,
Some good thoughts here! I’m glad that the film resonated with your own experience. You bring up an important dilemma — how can we evaluate the quality of our work in public education and avoid the problems associated with standardized testing. Maybe we can figure it out in class?
I really enjoyed reading your post because I can directly relate to you and the PSSA experience as well. It was definitely some of the most dreaded times that I went through during my schooling. I was one of those kids who loved going to school every day and learning, but absolutely hated those days of prepping and test taking. With that being said, it is amazing how much emphasis is put on those exams and evaluating students, teachers, and schools, when students who had first hand experience like us hated the idea of them altogether.
I feel as though standardized exams that measure someones success should not be based on material you crammed down someone’s throat a few weeks leading up to the exam. It should be a measure of the overall curriculum–that is what we want children to take away from school right? So why measure success some other day?
A point I found interesting in your post is about halting the actual learning in schools. I think that this is one of the many problems with having so much testing of students. Since many people are against having longer school days and years (from students to unions to the government–who’s going to pay for more hours?), all of the time that students are in school should be productive (even if it’s just learning to interact with others, not doing algebra). If we are wasting weeks of school prepping for tests that take even more time (several days or more) to take, then we are taking away valuable time that students could actually be learning more material, or gaining a better mastery of material. This seems like a completely counterproductive system if what we actually want in schools is learning.
Zac,
In regards to your point on standardized testing really damaging students’ passion for school and learning, I would have to say I agree with you. I would also like to push the idea a little bit further and bring up the point that all of the extra training for the standardized testing wastes so much valuable time.
You mentioned how there would be many hours of class time devoted to prepping for the tests, all of which was essentially re-hashing of material we had already learned. I would also most definitely agree with this. Really, I think all the “training” for Pennsylvania’s PSSA’s (and potentially other state’s standardized tests) consisted primarily of teaching us how to take the exam. I, too, remember rarely ever learning anything new at all, other than methods by which we should take the test in order to maximize our chances of doing well. We were spending so much time learning not how to master the material that would be covered on the exam, but learning how to master the art of taking the exam itself.