Just type the word “test” into the search box on Facebook and you’ll find thousands of parents distraught over the standardized tests their children are being forced to take despite the fact that these parents know it is not in the best interests for their children who in many cases are becoming physically ill and emotionally traumatized by the experience of sitting for up to two weeks straight filling out bubble sheets and answering prompts. Schools are reluctant and even misleading when it comes to informing parents they can simply opt out often arguing that although they acknowledge that it might not be in the best interest of the child, without standardized tests, everything will fall apart.
For many there is no alternative imaginable as in this comment from a student studying to be a teacher.
I can't STAND standardized tests. Every professor (and grad student) at my teaching college hates them. And yet, I have not heard a single responsible alternative to them. How do we assess if students are learning the curriculum without them? If teachers are teaching? If entire schools are failing? Yes, they are undeniably hideous, and "teaching to the test" is an awful, unavoidable consequence of them, but if we take them away...then what?
Isn’t it odd
Isn’t it odd that in PK - 12 school life we think we can’t measure success without one-size-fits all government imposed tests, yet, once we leave school and enter college or the real world, this magically is no longer true? For those unable to imagine a world where we can assess without standardized tests, I bequeath upon you these ideas.
I want more »