We are starting another round of standardized tesing. There will be several more before the year is over. The kids are so tested out - already - it is almost impossible to get them to take them seriously. I can hardly take the tests seriously because they prove nothing. They do not make teachers accountable. They make the testing companies rich.
Someday we will look back at all this tesing and say that it is child abuse. Okay, I will say it then. All this tesing is abusive to children. It is simply too much. I can't for the life of me see how answering multiple choice questions makes kids better students (what kind of feedback do they get?), or, for that matter, does it make them better citizens of the world. It doesn't. It hasn't. It never will.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Standardized Tests - The New Child Abuse
Posted by Liz at 8:30 PM
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2 comments:
Amen.
I just have to question the notion that learning "facts" is what education is really all about. Do we really want our kids to know "facts" or do we want them to reason, to deduce, to think creatively, etc? Do we want robots who can spit out information given to them or human beings capable of creative and flexible thought?
Thanks for the post.
Steve, you get it! I want my students to learn to love to learn, and I tell them that I don't like the tests either, but we have to make the best of it. I do tell them, for example, in reading comprehension that it is NOT against the rules to read the all the questions and answers FIRST because they then know what to look for. I also tell them the good thing about multiple choice tests (as if there can be anything about them that is good)is THEY GIVE YOU THE ANSWERs! It is just a matter of being a bit of a detective.
If it were up to me we wouldn't have grades either. We still need to grade things, but I hate grades. Parents think, My child is a 'C' ", not "My child got a 'C'". What it boils down to is that we educators must always ask "What's best for the child?" Sadly, that seems to have been lost.
I absolutely love teaching though. The rewards outweigh the negative by miles. Konwing that I have made a difference for a child is something that can never go in my paycheck.
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