If you went to a public school in the last decade you probably took a standardized test. And not just the ones to get into college, but ones designed to test the school’s performance. No Child Left Behind has only increased their use, and a new local reform effort might make things worse.
New legislation designed by Gov. Rick Snyder is intended to, according to a statement he made regarding the legislation, “… drive toward a system of higher expectations for its system of schools and educators.”
“We need a performance-based education system that will meet the 21st century education needs of all students. Innovation and educational entrepreneurship must be cultivated through improved models of instruction across the state. There must be greater choice for students and parents and greater responsibility and accountability at the individual school level for student growth.”
To that end, a new teacher tenure law was also passed. Some are concerned this new law will have adverse affects on education. Eastern Michigan University professor James Berry, speaking to Annarbor.com about the new tenure law, said “one of his concerns about the legislation is that this pressure to improve student achievement may lead teachers in Michigan to ‘teach to the test,’ teaching so kids perform well on standardized tests and not necessarily doing all the other things that make a teacher successful.”
“Trying to evaluate good teaching is more than standardized tests.”
Another problem Berry points out is “…the commission will have to examine…what exactly makes up a teacher’s quality.”
“Is it simply giving facts to improve test scores? Or is it managing a classroom and students, while tailoring education to individual kids? He said the latter option is extremely difficult to examine in simple evaluations between a principal and a teacher.”
As Annarbor.com said, education is not something that can be standardized. People are different, and they learn differently. A kid who likes to draw and build models is going to have a hard time with a multiple-choice test. If teachers teach just to get students to pass the tests, which some might be tempted to do for funding reasons, public education is going to get worse, not better.
Unfortunately, standardized tests are easy to dish out and measure. They’re solid, quantitative data and bureaucracies eat that stuff up like candy. Even worse, a substitute system that properly measures academic achievement and teacher performance, besides course grades, isn’t easy to come up with.
So a new system for measuring academic and teacher performance is needed in order to prevent “teaching for the test.” Until someone comes up with that system, making sure the new performance and academic standards are properly upheld is vital.
Even if they’re not the best tool for the job, standardized tests have the capacity to provide accountability for teachers, and student performance. The ideals the law is trying to uphold are not bad; it’s just the measuring tool that needs to be changed.
Teaching for the test is not what’s best for our children or our teachers. Until a better system can be made, we’re stuck with what we have so we have to make sure teachers don’t just use class to get students to pass those tests. Not only does that undermine the point of education reform, it creates a generation of people ill-prepared
for life beyond secondary education.
