The system of public schooling in
the United States began its slide down the slippery slope to conformity on
January 8th, 2002. By signing off on the No Child Left Behind Act,
George W. Bush changed the method by which students’ intelligence is gauged,
and consequently the American ideal of intellectual success. The act called for improvement, uniformity, and standardization in American public schools.
Children as young as nine-years-old would be subject to some form of standardized
testing to ensure that their teachers were properly instructing them. Whether
the student is a well-to-do inhabitant of suburbia or poverty-stricken pupil
from the inner-city, she is expected to pass the test with flying colors. This
oversimplified method of better educating American youth has led teachers to
conform to the government’s expectations.
“Teaching to the test” sounds like
a good idea. It’s not. When a teacher teaches to a standardized test––that is,
he teaches students how to answer questions extremely similar to what the test
will ask––his goal is not to enhance a student’s understanding of a concept,
but to guarantee him a good score on the MCAS or the SAT or the FCAT or any
other high-stakes test. He doesn’t want to teach this way, but if his students fail
the exam, the state government will take away the school’s funding. The stakes
are high, indeed. Yet, the purpose of these tests is to measure a student’s
ability to do related tasks. For example, if a student correctly answers a
multiplication problem, it is assumed that he has the ability to do any
multiplication problem of a similar difficulty. But if the teacher has been
drilling into his students that “three times two equals six” (because he knows
that the test asks that exact question every year), the inference that the same
students know the entire multiplication table is inaccurate.
High-stakes tests were created to
standardize teaching practices. So that “no child would be left behind,” the
exams test students on information that government officials believe should be
universally understood. The problem is that the “high-stakes” aspect of the
exams encourages teachers to change their individual methods of teaching and
conform to the government’s standards. Some will do whatever they can to boost
scores, including repeatedly drilling items that regularly pop up on the test. The surplus of standardized tests has not improved
the education of students, but the inculcation of them.
Sources
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/nochild/nclb.html
Shannon, I see your problem with the public schooling system and the standardized testing, as I feel the same way. So many times teachers are preparing us just to get a good grade on a “high stakes” test, while if they had just taught us the knowledge we needed the teachers wouldn’t need to worry about us passing. For example, last year I always did practice SAT English questions, and at when it came time to take the PSAT questions I would know the answer but I couldn’t explain to you why the answer was correct or what the problem with the sentence was called. However, I feel there is a need for these tests, but the questions should not look the same as they do every year over and over. I think the testing needs to have a little more variety. I also agree with you that teachers do “drill” the same material into us to guarantee a good score, and I believe it does corrupt the system. I think that you bring up a good point that the standardized test do not improve our education, but instead increase our ability to retain what it repeatedly told to us throughout the course of the year. Your argument is very legitimate and convincing, and is written well from what I can see.
ReplyDeleteShannon, I can't believe that Eric let you get away with the cliche "with flying colors"! Good lord, Orwell would be turning over in his grave if he read that. You are WAY too good of a writer to rely on such vacuous expressions. Other than this one stylistic hiccough, you do write extremely well.
ReplyDeleteThis is an important post, because I assume it foreshadows some of your research paper. Let me offer some suggestions. Everything you write is good, and I think there is plenty of research to support it. Be sure, however, in your final research paper to back everything up with evidence. This post needs some evidence that proves that teachers actually teach to the test. You cannot accept, based on your intuition, that this is true - although it probably is. Also, be careful about how you talk about "government expectations." I know that this sounds like an ominous idea, but remember, you are talking about "public" education. Naturally, the government will play some role in determining how students are educated and what they learn. Finally, please see me. I have another book I can recommend. There is one chapter in that book that specifically addresses this issue. It might help you with your research paper.