This article: http://www.policymic.com/articles/21555/standardized-testing-is-completely-out-of-control
... talks about how schools have become less teaching and more testing. It says that so much time spent testing (and prepping for that testing) has pushed out room for learning. Well, we are learning, but we aren't learning our subjects proper. We are learning them corelationally by learning to take the tests on those subjects. Perhaps that is how we came to this obtuse teaching structure. Why learn something if we won't be tested on it? That mentality seems cold and uncreative, but it is the only merit a student can be judged by in scale. I don't care how many teams you're the captain of or how much community service you've done, good luck getting to a college without taking the SAT or ACT.
Maybe it has come to this through economic principle; those who placed the greatest importance on standardized testing were the ones who did the best, received the most and you had to place just as much importance on these tests to remain competitive. Now everyone has to do it and what was once seen as an extra, applauded effort is now commonplace and expected much like encores for rock concerts or after-credits scenes for films. Imagine: we live in a world where lack of an encore is insulting and extra preparation for a standardized test is expected (although that defeats to point of "extra," doesn't it?).
Although we can't very well standardize preparation if we are against standardization in the first place. Colleges need some criteria to sort students on. Much easier clicking on an Excel sheet than analyzing every applicant. Is that what it is? Has standardized testing come to be because there are just too many of us to do it the old fashioned way? I don't know what to do about that. I don't know how to solve to the Ouroboros of testing to be tested. I just wish we could find a way to tell Lynyrd Skynyrd it's okay to play Free Bird during their set.
I like your analogy about encores. It seems as though taking the ACT and SAT are an inevitable part of a high school student's senior as more students are making the decision to attend college. I would add that it seems like much of academia is causing us to "up the ante" as what used to be exemplary or "extra" has become the expected. For instance, it seems as though going to college and earning a bachelor's is enough, but it is now expected that many career professionals obtain a master's or even higher degree.
ReplyDeleteI agree that while having standards are necessary and that tests are currently our best way to measure these standards, there is too much emphasis placed on testing. Students are not mastering knowledge, but instead performing. We know we can measure memorization, but how can we measure a student's ability to actually learn material?