I have been following, working with, wondering about, impressed by, and confounded by what happens in our educational systems for about forty years. The confounded by response has never been greater than in the past ten years or so. We have put a system in place, in most states, where young people have to be tested frequently, and the quality of our educational system is based on those tests. This has been our national answer to quality improvement, and the primary metric we use to assess whether or not our children are doing well. I have never talked to one teacher during the time this has been in place who believes this is a good and valid metric, but all teachers are stuck trying to make all children (except for a very few who are exempted) fit into one testing model.
We have put incredible political energy into raising these test scores, and sometimes they have improved. There are schools which do quite well at getting most young people to pass, and schools which don't do well at all. A small raise of perhaps 5% on the scores is celebrated.
Meanwhile, in virtually every major urban area in the nation, young people are leaving our schools without graduating at a level above 50%. Once it was boys who did well in school and graduated, and we had to design special classes for girls to improve their achievement. Now, girls are outperforming boys significantly, but in urban areas, they are still not doig well.
So, in the highest population areas, as we have been focusing on testing, young people have opted out of our schools as soon as they have had the option. I personally believe that the annual or every other year rite of failure of taking and doing miserably on tests might have something to do with that. A young person trying to feel capable, significant and influential might find the process of spending a week every couple of years having no choice but to take and fail again on a test devastating. I have actually talked to several children in upper elementary who have shared that exact experience. So instead of increasing engagement and motivation to learn, the tests actually, for these young people, convinces them they are unimportant failures. I believe this is an unintended negative consequence of positive intentions, but shallow thinking.
If dedicated classroom teachers supported the tests, and I mean the ones who do a good job, I might have a different opinion. But I have become convinced we are measuring the wrong things the wrong way and, in the process, devastating the very youth who need to connect to the schools and become excited about education.
Instead of tests, I believe we need to focus on demonstrated competencies, evidenced by portfolios of the achievements of young people. Very concrete. measurable products which demonstrate skills are much better measures of learning than standardized tests. The tools are there now to go to this approach. Of course, that would mean treating each child as an individual and would be much more difficult for people with political agendas to take credit for successes, and/or scapegoat educators as a way of getting elected.
Whether or not this is the metric is debatable, but the current process has been going on for several years now, and there is no evidence it is improving education, and we would have a difficult getting teachers, students and parents to testify in support of the current strategies. Let's rethink our one size fits all approach and see if we can do something that might actually improve the lives of young people.
Let me know what you think.
