More on State Testing

USA Today has a great article.

State tests put image ahead of performance

Here are a few excerpts:

The result, according to a Gannett News Service analysis of test scores, is that many states have taken the safe route, keeping standards low and fooling parents into believing their kids are prepared for college and work.

States use a number of "cheap tricks" to create the illusion that students are doing better than they really are, said Dan Koretz, a Harvard University testing expert.

Those include designing tests easy enough for almost all students to pass or lowering passing scores to make sure most students make the grade.

This is a problem with assembly line education. True "education" is not easily measured. We've seen this in our family. I have one daughter who tests very well. I have another daughter who tests poorly. The "more gifted" child is the one who tests poorly.

In the lower grades, I've also found the test scores can fluctuate dramatically from year to year. One year, my daughter had a "melt down hissy fit" right before we started the test. Her scores that year were much lower than the previous year. Another child's score jumped dramatically in the 4th grade when she finally started to read comfortably. Either way, if I had focused on testing, I would not improved the overall "education" of my children and could have actually impeded true advancement.

I struggle a bit with how much effort I want to put into testing. I do think that testing is a skill that serves a purpose. I tell my kids that testing is a game. If you play it well, it leads to money for college.

Thus, I don't want to entirely ignore standardized testing, but I don't want to teach to the test either. In a few weeks we should get this year's standardized test results. I want them to test above average, but not too well. If they test too well then I know that I've let myself be sucked in to teaching to the test.

I admit that I did get a couple of those test prep books. I intended to spend a week going over them. In the end, we spent only a few hours. The whole process seemed to snuff the joy of learning right out of my kids.

I remember a comment I heard about testing at my first homeschool conference. "Schools use testing because a classroom teacher can't keep track of the progress of that many students and/or can't pass this information on to the parents. In contrast, homeschool parents just 'know' how their children are doing."

The USA Today article mentioned that testing is now used to "fool parents." I know more than one school parent who was shocked to discover just how poorly their children were really doing. Test scores and grades had lulled the parents into a false sense of security.

I don't really have a policy recommendation for schools. The only recommendation I have for parents is to actively direct your children's education.


----------------------------
Related Tags: homeschool, public school, No Child Left Behind, State testing, Standardized Testing, Parent directed education