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Standardized Testing
December 9, 2010
“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”
-Kay Redfield Jamison
-Kay Redfield Jamison
"... It’s not that I am against standardized testing. What I’ve personally got a rant about is the extent to which standardized testing, firstly, has become a massive commercial industry, which is detached, in most cases, from the real purpose of education. And secondly, the extent to which we’ve come to associate standardizing with raising standards. Now, everybody agrees we should raise standards in schools. Of course you should. But, the primary instrument that’s being used is standardized testing. And the problem with it is that it fails to do the one thing we know works if we want to improve standards in schools, which is to address personal development.
"The larger argument about this is that when I say public education arose in response to industrialism, it also developed in the image of industrialism. If you look at public education systems in their general shape, they are manufacturing processes. And a lot of it happens — we separate people by age, it’s a very linear process, very focused on certain types of outcome. And standardized testing is, in a way, the grand example of the industrial method of education. It’s not there to identify what individuals can do. It’s there to look at things to which they conform.
"You’ve almost got to get the balance right here, but we’ve had now years and years and billions of dollars worth of investment in the expansion of standardized testing, in American schools for example (but this isn’t just America, it’s around the world), and for the most part they’ve not been successful in doing what they’re expected to, which is to raise standards. If anything, they seem to have contributed to a lowering of morale in schools. They seem to have contributed to an erosion of commitment. In America, for example, there’s something like a minimum of 30 percent dropout rates from high schools — it’s much higher among certain ethnic communities. Kids are being turned off from school, in part because of the whole culture, not just the tests themselves, but the educational culture they promote.
"So, my argument is that instead of standardizing everything in schools, we should be going in the opposite direction. I don’t think there’s a kid in America, or anywhere in the world, who gets out of bed in the morning wondering what they can do to raise their state’s reading standards. They get out of bed, if they’re motivated, by their own interests and their own development. So I think we should be doing the opposite. I think we should be personalizing everything in schools. We should be looking at ways of making education relevant to each individual child. And there’s no other way of improving standards. Actually, there’s no other way of doing it on the grand scale.
"Now the problem with standardized tests is that it’s based on the mistake that we can simply scale up the education of children like you would scale up making carburetors. And we can’t, because human beings are very different from motorcars, and they have feelings about what they do and motivations in doing it, or not. And, all the schools I know that are great have something in common — they all have great teachers and they have a commitment to the personal development of each of the pupils in the school. And that’s easily lost in a culture of standardizing."
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Comments (22)
Displaying 5 of 22 Comments [ View all ]KCS
Kannapolis, NC, United States
I was never good at taking Standardized Test in School!! I feel as though the people that make these laws are not in a classroom setting on a daily basis, or probably not ever!! We need to always look at the individual needs of each child!! Children are very unique individuals and it's not right for children who are in AIG classes, children who are in a regular classroom setting or children in a special needs classroom to take the same Standardized Test!! I never have understood that!! We need to assess each child's individual needs!! That could mean coming up with different test that would benefit or be appropriate for each individual child!! Children are our future and we need to take notice of their uniqueness, because each of them could make such a difference in the world with whatever career path they choose!! Thanks for letting me voice my opinion for all the parents that feel the same and our children!!
United States
Very well said! As a teacher, I would like to applaud and thank you. The process of assessing students with a one shot, one-size fits all assessment when we have already determined the necessity for differentiated, individualized in the classroom seems ironic. Should we not offer varied, more meaningful forms of assessment so all students can best demonstrate their academic achievement their preferred way?
Miami, Florida, United States
Good for Sir Ken
...And how about those kids whose major intelligence is in art or music or plain old ordinary biology, and who are getting stiffed because of the pressure to conform to STEM.
Memphis City School Teacher
Cordova, TN., United States
Great article and oh so very true.
St Louis, MO, United States
Dr. Maria Montessori's educational philosophy and methodology are very successful at individualizing education for each and every child. Back in 1936, she wrote, "A child is a discoverer. He is an amorphous splendid being in search of his own proper form." An individualized Montessori education helps him (and her!) achieve that form.
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