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Nick Tarasewicz

Measuring What Matters Least



In the US, standardized testing has become the beast of an old horror movie, swallowing up our
educational systems time, money, and freedom. People still insist that the beast is really doing
society a favor by making its victims more accountable," but the data is not supporting that
statement. Rather, standardized tests prove to be inadequate measures of educational prowess
and rob students of a full and robust education in the name of equality and security.

Standardized tests have always been a part of our educational system, but we have become
solely focused on their use as a result of 2002s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which
mandates annual testing in all 50 states. Scores are then used to help determine curriculum and
teachers salaries as well as students placement within the educational system (Morin). How
would you feel if the direction of your childs education was altered solely due to sub-par testing
qualities?

NCLB also allows for the ranking of schools: those that have higher, more proficient scores
receive more funding and teacher bonuses (Kolodner).

This standardized testing beast is devouring our teachers curriculums and robbing children of
their childhoods by reducing play time in favor of study time. NCLB testing begins in the third
grade, but schools test younger students to familiarize them with the tests (Kozol). School
administrators discard subjects and topics that are not included on the tests and even reduce
recess in lieu of study time.

On September 11, 2002, students at Monterey High School in Lubbock, Texas, were prevented
from discussing the first anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks because they were too busy
with standardized test preparation (Kolodner). Obviously it is far more important to prepare
students for exams than teach them about influential events in United States history. Many
question whether this testing-centric approach will do the exact opposite of its intent in the
future, creating brainwashed pupils who can enumerate facts instead of human beings capable
of reason and resourcefulness.

The educational system is supposed to prepare students for life; however standardized testing
is doing the inverse. The multiple-choice format encourages a simplistic way of thinking so that
there are only right and wrong answers, which isnt applicable to the real world (Sacks).

The late educational researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD, points out that current standardized
tests cannot measure, 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, or integrity (Strauss). Now, which of the following skills are more important in life:
Being able to regurgitate twenty or so complex physics equations but not be able to use them
appropriately, or being able to use the resources in ones environment to find the necessary
information and be able to appropriately apply it?

Many believe that despite the aforementioned evidence, by assessing students by the same
standards, everyone is provided with an equal opportunity to succeed. However, in the attempt
to use standardized testing to create equal opportunity by teaching and assessing students by
the same criteria, we are demoting individual freedom by forcing teachers to only instruct skills
and subjects that that will help students succeed on tests.

The libertarian philosopher, Milton Friedman, speaks of how, a society that puts equality before
freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of
both. Michael Sandel, professor of Philosophy at Harvard University and author of Justice:
Whats the Right Thing to Do?, summarizes this viewpoint of individual freedom as follows,
Only a minimal state -- one that enforces contracts, protects private property from theft, and
keeps the peace -- is compatible with the libertarian theory of rights. Any state that does more
than this is morally unjustified (60). NCLB oversteps these boundaries and infringes upon
students rights to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Although Im not against testing in general, it is important to understand where students stand in
their individual developmental processes. If the equal standards that students are held to wont
be prevalent in their adult lives, we are inflicting unnecessary stress upon our youth and stifling
their ability to succeed in the future. Students, and society, would prosper more in the long run if
students and teachers had the ability to learn and teach as they see fit, better preparing
students for life outside school walls.

Understandably, we cant just do away with testing, but we can reform it. For multiple years,
Finland has topped the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ratings and yet
has no external standardized test used to rank students or schools, according to Stanford
University researchers Linda Darling-Hammond and Laura McCloskey. Finland's success has
been achieved not by drilling students to regurgitate information, but instead by using
assessments that encourage students to be active learners who can find, analyze, and use
information to solve problems in novel situations (Darling-Hammond).

We should alter our nations standardized testing system so that students are presented with a
few scenarios and are asked to utilize the resources provided to them in order to find and derive
the appropriate answers. With this approach, much like in Finland, teachers would be
stimulating our children's critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which is essential to
modern survival just as fire was back in the stone age.

By reforming standardized testing to focus on the development of relevant skills that will assist
students throughout the rest of their lives, we can transform the standardized testing beast into
a Swiss Army knife for life.


Word Count: 926

Works Cited:

Bidwell, Allie. "Study: High Standardized Test Scores Don't Translate to Better Cognition." US
News. U.S.News & World Report, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.

Darling-Hammond, Linda & McCloskey, Laura. "Assessment for Learning Around the World:
What Would It Mean to Be 'Internationally Competitive?,'" www.stanford.edu. October
10, 2014.

Kolodner, Meredith. "Students, Teachers Sweating High-stakes Tests as Parents Rebel
Against Constant Prep, Daily News, May 3, 2011.

Kozol, Jonathan. The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in
America. New York: Crown, 2005. Print.

Morin, Amanda. "What Is High Stakes Testing?, www.about.com. October 11, 2014.

Sacks, Peter. Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We
Can Do to Change It, 2001. Print.

Sandel, Michael J. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? New York City: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2010. Print.

Strauss, Valerie. "The Myths of Standardized Testing, Washington Post, Apr. 15, 2011.

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