I Don't Approve My Tax Dollars to do That: Standardize an Education

When my family came together for Thanksgiving last weekend, my relatives inevitably inquired about my junior year. I shrugged unenthusiastically. Many responded with praises of their own college experience, raving about the freedom to explore different classes and intellectual opportunities. “Don’t you love what you’re studying,” they asked.

Sorry, I don’t have time for that. I have to prepare for my future.

I’ve never taken a class “just because.” Between fulfilling my school’s mile-long list of distribution requirements, completing the ten mile-long list of requirements for veterinary school and taking enough biology classes that I actually obtain my major, my classes have been selected based on their ability to fit into either one or better yet two of those categories. In elementary school, it was do well to get ready for middle school. In middle school, it was get good grades to earn a spot in the honors classes in high school. In high school, emphasis was placed on doing whatever it took to get into a good college. Now it’s about getting into graduate school. Accompanying these pressures are hours upon hours of standardized testing to which academic curriculums are forced to cater.

I don't understand why a student's performance on one given day or a few select days outweighs his or her performance over an entire high school career for college admission. The scoring system is not even uniform; it's curved based on how all of the students on that particular day do. I applaud Mount Holyoke, Smith and other institutions that have made standardized test scores an optional application component. 

Photo credit: http://www.nacacnet.org/research/briefing/StandardizedTesting/Pages/StandardizedTesting.aspx

What happened to school centered around the love of learning?

Within the last two years, forty-five states have adopted the Common Core Standards. The Common Core Standards identify a sweeping list of what K-12 students should learn and be capable of doing in mathematics and English language arts. The hope is state adherence to the Standards will produce high school graduates prepared to handle collegiate level courses or succeed in an entry level job.  They claim implementation of the Standards will not lead to more testing or changes in lesson plans but I disagree. What students learn will change. But not necessarily for the better. (http://www.corestandards.org/)

How students are increasingly being taught to answer questions.

Photo credit: http://standardizedtests.procon.org/

I was eight when I first encountered my first standardized exam. I recall my third grade teacher encouraging us to just do our best, to answer the questions as best we could and to not worry about our scores – how we did would only reflect on the school. Yet if my scores truly did not reflect my ability as an individual, I never would have received them in the mail. A group of chattering nine year olds wouldn’t be comparing scores with one another when they were sent to our homes the following fall. Year after year precious time was wasted taking more and more exams. First it was just reading; then they added math and science. I just missed the cutoff to having to pass history in order to graduate high school. When does it end?

There is so much stress associated with the state exams, the SAT, the ACT and other national standardized exams. Is it really fair to put that much pressure on students, especially those under middle school age? How will such pressure help students to learn effectively if all they know is that they better answer the question correctly (or else)?

Photo credit: http://educational-alternatives.net/welcome/?page_id=435

So much precious time and energy gets wasted on and preparing for these exams. You have to write and think in a certain way. If you do not, you are deemed unintelligent. Such exams only cater to one learning style. Did it matter to the graders that I would devour thirty books every summer? No. All that mattered to them was that I could correctly identify and analyze themes in All Quiet in the Western Front. Could I incorporate new vocabulary into my daily prose? No. But could I fill in the right word in the right blank in my vocabulary exercises book? Absolutely.

Photo credit: http://www.beyond.com/articles/a-standardized-testing-uproar-7773-article.html

I understand why such standards are important. Society demands a population that can read, write, perform basic arithmetic, think critically and articulate opinions.  It’s also important to ensure teachers are doing their jobs. But I really think we have lost sight of crucial piece of getting an education (I also know of plenty of teachers not being good teachers who are allowed to remain at the front of the class). It’s great being able to regurgitate information when prompted and when being evaluated. But what happens when you’re no longer being evaluated? Chances are, the learning ceases. I loved reading. Yet the strict analytical code I had to obey in middle and high school temporarily killed that love, a love I could not rekindle until my sophomore year of college. In order to encourage life-long learning, students must be taught that that is the ultimate goal. Not the grades, not the test scores, but the knowledge. A common list of standards or exams can’t accomplish that.

I don’t approve my tax dollars to do that: standardize an education.