Ignorance is Strength

One of the major problems that many educators have with standardized testing is that fact that for a certain period of time in their class, what they are teaching is all about the test. It doesn’t matter if a teacher is in the middle of an amazing string of lessons or teaching and lecturing on something he is passionate about. All that matters for those moments is the test.

In an article that I was reading, Michael J. Crossey, vice president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, commented on this very topic. He says:

“We need to teach children how to be lifelong learners,” Crossey said. “Teach them how to be successful and how to learn.”
Instead, educators must teach to the test, he said.
The same would be true if the state went to competency testing to graduate from high school, he said.
“To me, one test is never going to meet your needs,” Crossey said, noting that he hasn’t seen the proposed test. “There’s so much more involved than a test.”

Mr. Crossey says a couple important things in this quote. The idea I would like to focus on is the concept of teaching children how to be “lifelong learners”. From my experience as a student and my limited knowledge collected from other Teachers, it seems to me that standardized tests aren’t teaching students how to use their minds, they are merely teaching them how to be good test takers. When I look back on my education I hardly remember anything from the MEAP or ACT or SAT. All that I remember from those tests is how I took them. I learned how to narrow down options in a multiple choice and how to pass the test, not learn some of the material. Of course knowledge of the material is needed in order to succeed, but it can also be argued that students who are knowledgeable in certain subjects may test poorly in those subjects do to poor test taking skills. There are even entire books dedicated to studying for tests, the “test prep” book section is not an uncommon site at any Barnes and Noble.

So as I reflect on this article and my test memories I wonder, “What’s the point?” When am I ever going to use those test taking skills in the real world. I doubt I will and I doubt whether any of my fellow students will. So why do we keep bombarding students with this format of learning if it really isn’t beneficial to them in the long run. I feel that there have to be other ways of enabling our students to become better life long learners. What if we taught them things that mattered in each subject instead of how to successfully pass a test. I know that I don’t have the experience or the knowledge to propose a better plan, but I feel there must be one out there. There has to be a better alternative to standardized test.

I would like to say something, for myself and my readers, regarding me and this topic. It is the fact that I am extremely uninformed on this subject. I have my general opinion in regards to standardized testing, but I am willing to hear both sides of the argument. Perhaps there are some benefits to testing, I would like to find out so that maybe a better way of evaluating students could be discovered. I may not know it all but one fact that I am getting from my readings is that there is a certain amount of unrest among practicing teachers in regards to this testing system.

So hopefully through this class and these blogs I can discover just a little bit more about what it means to be an educator. If anyone out there has any information that could send me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

– Link