Testing. A Necessary Evil?

Testing.  A necessary evil?  Achievement...what is it, really?  How does one measure it and, can it authentically be measured?  These are questions that I am trying to define this semester as I study to become a classroom teacher.  

Standardized testing has been in place for a long, long time.  Not long ago, standardized tests were just one of many tests given to students to measure their abilities.  

As adults, we are tested daily, and in many ways.  Did you get up for work and arrive there at a certain time?  Did you care for or feed any children or pets before you left the house?  If you have children, did you make them a healthy lunch or make sure they have money to buy lunch?  Did you get them to school, or watch them catch the bus?  Did you follow the traffic laws on your own way to work, or to run errands?  Are you wearing appropriate clothes? Are you using appropriate language?  The “tests” we go through are non-stop.  Each “test” tells a tiny little bit about what makes us who we are.  

If I get up late one day and arrive late to where I need to be, most around me would chalk it up to I’m just having an “off” day.  One messed up “test” does not define all of me.  And yet, in our schools...one test can mean a lot.  

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), created in 2001, requires states to develop assessments in basic skills.  In order for schools to receive federal funding, they must give these assessments to all students at selected grade levels.  AND, annual improvement must be shown. 

The assessments given in Indiana, are the ISTEP tests.  ISTEP is given in grades 3-9 each spring.   In grade 10, students take the ISTEP and a Graduation Qualifying Exam.  If students pass those tests, they will be able to graduate from high school upon finishing up their required credits.  If they do not pass the Graduation Qualifying Exam, they would be placed in remedial classes until they pass.  Actually, at any grade level students may be placed in remedial classes based on their one test score.  

NCLB creates high stakes testing.  High stakes tests do NOT mean the characteristics of the test are high stakes, but rather that the consequences placed on the outcome are high stakes.  

A school that receives passing test scores is eligible for federal funding or specific grants.  

As an educator, I know there is more that makes up Timmy than what one test tells.  But to policy makers, if Timmy doesn’t get a certain passing score, or show improvement, he may be retained.  Possibly, I could get fired as well, based on Timmy’s score.  (More than likely though, based on the overall scores of my class.)  And if I get fired based on my student’s scores, good luck to me in getting re-hired else where.  I am expected to teach material that is or may be on the tests...not necessarily things to enhance my student's lives, or make them richer thinkers.  Yet, I know that all students are NOT created equally!  Different techniques for learning work for different students.  Tests can’t always measure, AUTHENTICALLY, what a person/student knows or needs to know!  For example, I can bake a meal from scratch, make Halloween costumes by reading a pattern, and administer shots to my diabetic cat two times a day, and yet there isn’t a test I can think of that would allow me to shine in those areas of my interests and abilities.  

Studies have shown that when levels of teaching to the test increase, the quality in level of instruction goes down.  Principals are walking that line between enforcing policy makers policies and allowing teachers the freedom to teach in their classrooms.  Parents need to take note of what is happening in schools.  It is natural as a parent to want to trust in the system that has worked for so long.  But, the decisions being made in schools are really being made by policy makers removed from getting to know your child.  Parents and teachers need to work together.  Principals and teachers need to be supported by parents.  Parents need to connect with their policy makers.  A hands-off approach will not fix what is ailing in today’s education system.  

We may be creating a majority of students who can take tests, but intellectually we are not stimulating our children.  Future policy makers won’t be armed with creative abilities, and in my opinion, creativity leads to solving problems.  

How sad to label an entire school as failing or needing to be restructured based on one test score.  Teachers are trained to teach.  We need to allow them to shine by letting them do so.    

~ltk

CITATION: Baker, E. A., & Dooley, C. (2010, March 1). Teaching language arts in a high stakes era. Voice of Literacy. Podcast retrieved from http://voiceofliteracy.org