Tonight I wanted to talk about standardize tests. I’ve a lot of issues with it. I’m going to drop some truth and you can either pick it up or leave it.
Testing doesn’t prove ANYTHING.
Here in the USA, states compete for federal dollars through the Race to the Top initiative that Obama started. This initiative uses tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland (which has a much better school system than America).
Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience said, “I think in fact teachers would tear off their shirts. If you only measure the statistics you miss the human aspect.” Finish teachers have said before that America needs to do away with Standardized Testing.
Harvard published a paper called the Effects of Standardized Testing on Students' Well-Being. According to the American Psychological Association, teens are reporting high levels of stress. (2014). Children between 13 and 17 years of age on average had higher stress levels than adults. Nervousness and anxiety, feelings of overwhelm, and depression and sadness are what students struggle with on a daily basis.
The stress that children have while taking standardized tests is ridiculous and has negative consequences. Teachers and parents alike believe that their children spend too much time testing. Johnson, Johnson, Farenga, and Ness (2008) quote a father in New York discussing his son’s experience with testing under NCLB:
My son is about to take the fourth-grade ELA exams this week. He has experienced extreme anxiety, vomiting, diarrhea, and has been unable to sleep in his own bed for the last three days. It’s breaking my heart. He wants to do so well. A nine-year-old should not be subjected to this. No Child Left Behind is not a remedy, it’s a horror for our children. (Johnson et al.,
2008, p. 15).
We spend more time testing and on school today than we did 70+ years ago and yet fifty percent of American adults can't read at an 8th great level (2016 report). More people are illiterate now than they were in the 1800's when children were educated by their parents or by a governess. Keep in mind that 90% of the population was literate at the start of public schools. This is only a ploy to undermine parents, dumb down the general public and control money. That's it in a nutshell.
I live in a school district that is one of the top school districts in Texas. Yet, I can see that the money and status is a lot of what drives people here. Now, I believe in teachers who have a passion and a calling for teaching but I cannot stand it when money is the main objective. It creates stress from the top all the way down to the kids.
One of my dear friends was literally lied to about which tests her 15 year old had to pass on the STAAR Test. This individual said something to the point that he wants his students to be afraid and anxious of not passing the tests. My friend flat out asked this faculty member if they were a Christian and they said “yes”. My friend continued to tell him that the Bible says not to “be anxious about anything...” and he couldn’t provide a reply. #micdrop
As parents, we want our kids to do well, all for their future, but what about NOW? What are you doing for them in this moment? Are they just asking, "Is this going to be on the test?" so that they can get good grades to someday get into a university? We need to position our children to have relationship with the things that surround them rather than just passing test after test.
I heard a true story of a medical professor who had a hard time teaching his students about the heart. They couldn't understand how the heart worked because they never had relationship or experience with a basic pump. Something so simple as a pump trumps taking wasteful tests that have no long term benefits.
So what does this mean? It means, getting your children to experience the world around them by being intentional! It means letting them explore, to take appropriate risks, to pay attention to the details, to slow down and smell the flowers, to pick up that roly poly bug off the cement and put it in the grass, to plant a garden, play with legos, read living books, get your hands dirty TOGETHER, take nature walks, build a treehouse and so much more. Any experience, that is positive and hands-on, can teach.
When you are looking at how good a district is, you see only the results of standardize testing, nothing more. Look beyond test scores. Our children may not realize it, but their future depends on US educating ourselves as parents so that they can have a true education.
