Do Standardized Tests Truly Measure How Well Our Kids Perform In School? - Katie Couric

Although this post is from 2007, when No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was up for renewal, it still gives everyone a lot to think about today. Katie Couric raises the question "Do standardized tests truly measure how well our kids perform in school?" As educators, I am sure that your first response is "yes! That's why we give them!" But take another look at this question.

"High stakes testing has forced teachers to teach to the test, giving schools an excuse to cut civics and art classes because they aren't a part of the tests" (Youtube: Couric).  By "teaching to the test" our students are simply "learning" what they need to learn in order to be successful on the assessment. Most students don't even remember this information a couple months after they "learned" it. I put "learning" in quotations because this raises another question as to what it means for students to truly learn. This can make a direct connection to the chapter we read in Adolescent Literacy, "The Essence of Understanding" by Ellin Oliver Keene. In this chapter, Keene explains that students learn from teachers that understanding means "remembering the facts long enough to answer questions, complete a project, or score well on a test" (Keene, 31). Unfortunately, you and I both know that understanding is something much richer and more complex than that. All too often, teachers settle, and then the students do too.

With that said, let's go back to the YouTube video. Taking another dive into Couric's question: "Do standardized tests truly measure how well our kids perform in school?, there is a lot to be said. First off, lets note that many art programs are being cut because they are seen as unimportant in relation to the testing. So why have art, music, theatre, etc? They won't get students anywhere because it won't help them perform better on the test - right? WRONG. These arts can be extremely beneficial to students and should not be cut out of school funding simply because students don't get tested on these skills.

Furthermore, one standardized tests can't be the sole predictor in whether or not a student performs well in school. A particular student can have test anxiety, can be of a different background in which the test may be unknowingly biased against, or the student can be simply having a bad day. The huge emphasis we place on standardized testing, in many conditions, is ridiculous.

All of this ties into our discussion for week four, "we still have no real way of knowing if students are learning" (Tuck). Our readings from this week also solidify my response above. I will begin with a quote from Carani, "Children who don't learn according to plan or who don't fit the picture are given the 'gift of time' or 'special services' to meet their 'individual needs'" (Carani, 169). Thus, there is no way to know if a student is making progress because these students with special services, or extended time, get placed in a category in which they are expected to meet the AYPs, like everyone else, but there are so many different expectations for all levels of people. Due to the standardized tests, these students with extra services are to meet a certain expectation and when they don't, educators and administration see them as failures. Do most educators really take the time to see that although these students may not have reached the goal that was set, they still made remarkable progress? No. Many teachers see that they were short of the goal, and the "invisible child" is formed. The child in which is reduced to a single letter or number grade.

In addition, Carani says "Things must be given a change to present themselves as they are, to be perceived in their individuality (Carani, 170). This statement means that students should be given opportunities to express their knowledge in ways that are for them. So, maybe one reason we have no real way of knowing if students are learning is simply because us teachers are not using effective teaching strategies or techniques that can help the students to succeed.

My favorite quote from this weeks reading is again from Carani: "When the immeasurable isn't recognized or valued, it tends to slip from view" (Carani, 175). All of the things that we can't measure, honesty, organization, self esteem, patriotism, etc. go unnoticed. While a child can be learning skills that will forever be of benefit to them, no one recognizes this because this characteristics are not specifically measured on the standardized tests.

Another reading from this week, chapter six of The Skin That We Speak, "Language, Culture, and the Assessment of African American Children" by Asa G. Hilliard III, raises the question "How can the assessment process be purified so as to operate in the service of African American children rather than against them?" (Hilliard, 91). Very often, standardized tests are unintentionally geared towards whites. The publishers of these tests forget about people of minority and so these people are at a disadvantage, on almost every test. It may be due to the fact that these students haven't been exposed to the same experiences, or they are unfamiliar with the language, or certain words, but either way, it is completely unfair for these students to start out with a disadvantage. "Mass produced standardized professional tests and materials are ill suited to the needs of most African American children, in part because certain false assumptions are made about th children and their culture" (Hilliard, 91).

 In Chapter 17 of Adolescent Literacy, "Thinking Through Assessment", the authors write that there is "a mismatch in what teachers know the state assessments should do (measure individual students growth over time) and what state assessments actually do (measure one group against another from year to year)" (Brenner, Pearson, Rief, 258). Again, making the point that teachers have no clue if an individual is making progress, all educators know is whether or not the students are doing well enough to meet their goals. Students are once again being reduced to a number/letter grade and their individuality is lost.

So, we go back to the original question: "Do standardized tests truly measure how well our kids perform in school?" I don't think so. After all this reading, it has become quite obvious that there are gaps in our education system. Will you stand up for your beliefs or will you become one of the teachers that "teaches to the test"? Remember, all students are individuals and should be treated this way.