Standard Fare won't provide a First Class education

What trends do you see in the future of standardized testing? Is the emphasis on standardized testing likely to increase or decrease in the next decade? Why do you think so?

First of all, there is a very big difference between what I actually see and what I want to see in the future of standardized testing. It is going to take tidal waves before anyone proposes a much needed change to the status quo. Even when those waves come there won't be immediate change. For months (maybe even years) politicians and businessmen will place the blame on someone else (probably educators). When a solution is finally drafted, I hope that it will redefine the meaning of success from passing tests to having the ability to succeed in life.

Education on almost every level is so tied up in bureaucracy that nobody is getting the education they deserve. The biggest culprit is high stakes standardized testing. Students don't always perform well under pressure and it is simply unfair to attach pay increases or even job retention to test scores that are ultimately a product of chance. It has been scientifically proven that stress can hinder the ability of the human brain to learn and recall information (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661306000453 -- This study says that only stress in the appropriate context can facilitate learning. In other words, pressure to do well on a test in April isn't going to help a student learn material any time of the year.). Placing both students and teachers under an entire year's worth of stress preparing for tests just isn't logical if you want to see positive results. Unfortunately as more and more people clamor for accountability in the classroom it is unlikely that teachers or students will have a break from standardized testing anytime soon.

Furthermore, by demanding that each and every student fit the exact same mold we are creating a generation of students without strengths and weaknesses... or creativity. Over and over in recent years employers have said that our schools are producing workers without enough creativity (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-03/opinion/robinson.schools.stifle.creativity_1_talk-college-degrees-education?_s=PM:OPINION -- an article by Ken Robinson who gave a TED talk in June 2006 about how schools are actually killing creativity... the TED talk itself has been viewed over 8 million times and I'd invite you to check it out when you have about 20 minutes to spare). A society needs a workforce with a wide variety of skills. Working so hard to make sure everyone is the same is eventually going to backfire.

When the next wave of education reform takes place I would like to see teachers given the appropriate tools to provide a quality education. A test should be used as a diagnostic tool rather than a death sentence. Teachers could then use the test data to identify struggling students and give them exactly the attention they need in the areas they need it most. Likewise, test data should also be useful for identifying teaching strategies and lessons that should be reused, reworked, or replaced. Appropriate test data could also be used to coordinated teaching between schools. If students at one school achieve super high in one area, the surrounding schools should have the benefit of learning how that school is teaching that particular subject. By reviewing scores in all of these ways, teachers can be accountable to themselves and each other rather than testing companies or the government.

I also think students would benefit if standards were skewed to favor the skills and knowledge for which students have a passion. For example, many current tests expect a passing grade on every section for a student to be considered passing overall. What if instead of decent grades on every section a really good grade on one section was weighted in such a way that it made up for deficiencies on another section? Grading in this way would benefit students who are non-native English speakers, are on the verge of dropping out of school, and/or simply cannot get a handle on a subject that is particularly difficult.

There really is no ideal solution to the problems presented by standardized tests, but hopefully the best solution will be found soon. One thing that is for certain is standardized testing isn't going away anytime soon.

Future Blog Ideas:

• Making school compulsory through high school (as heard in the President's State of the Union Address)
• Evolutionary basis for learning (based on an amazing book I read last semester)
• How does home environment affect learning
• The declining value of education (tuition is rising at a faster rate than income)
• Do you have any more suggestions?