Ever wonder why your child frequently talks about practice tests? Do you think this is beneficial for your child?
I think standardized tests have become the "fix-all" solution for a problem that is actually nonexistent and is making our classrooms oppressive.
The United States, having the highest child poverty in the industrial world at close to 23 percent, ranks sixth in reading and 13th in math, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that looked at databases offering test results as well as social and economic characteristics and other information.
The report's authors, a Stanford Graduate School of Education professor and one of the think tank's research associates, found that, "Because social class inequality is greater in the United States than in any of the countries with which we can reasonably be compared, the relative performance of U.S. adolescents is better than it appears when countries' national average performance is conventionally compared."
Those academic rankings don't sound as bad as what you have heard, right? That is because you will not hear that from the national media. You will hear the "bad" rankings from CEOs and politicians because they have a motive in saying schools are failing.
They have an economic plan, not an educational one. They have a plan that will elicit huge contracts in testing, test prep and technology services that will need to be implemented. This is all at the expense of your children.
Money will be found for implementation of corporate "solutions" while class sizes will go up. Teachers and administrators will fear for their jobs and teaching to the test will increase. The rankings aren't perfect, but I would argue that, historically, America's success in innovation has made it great specifically because we have not taught to a test. We have always taken pride in our ability to allow our kids the freedom to think "outside the box."
Let's do that right now and let our voices be heard. Help end this insanity.
TOMMY CARROLL
Troy