Testing over Teaching

Let’s be clear, testing is not the same as educating. Despite the hype of federal and state officials who are busy defending testing as a strategy to improve failing public schools, it’s been around since the 1960s. And, in the past 15 years, testing has only proved two things: First, American public school students still aren’t included in the of top 20 countries in math, science and reading. Second, testing doesn’t seem to have helped anyone but politicians, corporations and lobbyists.

Long ago, I asked my 7th grade English teacher why we had to take standardized tests, and she gave this flaccid reply, "We just want to see where you are." I thought, "I'm right here in front of you waiting to learn to diagram a sentence. How's filling in bubbles with a No. 2 pencil going to help me with that?"

My teacher wasn't clear about how the tests would help me get from "where I was" to "where I needed to be." Facilitating success wasn't part of the testing package then, and it certainly doesn't appear to be today.

Since President Bush's announcement of No Child Left Behind, the major solution offered to improve public education has been a tread-bare course of testing, backed increasingly by punitive measures directed at teachers and students. And mind you, many of the affected students are poor people and people of color who disproportionately rely on public education.

I believe federal, state and local officials have ceded responsibility for educating public school children in favor more increasingly of commodifying, packaging and handing them over to corporations. Thus, the escalating rates of testing, the time testing (and preparing for the tests) distracts from daily instruction and the consistently poor performance by many public schools pave the way, not for fixing, but for dismantling public education.

Further adding to the controversy surrounding testing is the perception that America's strategy to test, retest, and most recently, test stringently, has birthed an unholy alliance between our politicians, public education officials and educational consulting firms. Enter Pearson, the largest multinational education corporation operating in North America.

Last May, Pearson was given a massive contract to administer the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test aligned with the common core consortium standards adopted by 43 states. Pearson, and public officials who facilitate the focus on PARCC public school testing stand to improve their own fortunes more so than US public school children. Given the transparency of such financial incentives, it is no surprise that the most widely backed solution to fix public education offered by our public servants is testing.

Here's the thing: Everyone with common sense knows there is no quick, cheap or easy fix to American public education. But, to subject students to repeatedly demoralizing tests while they are not being provided the teachers, textbooks, tutoring, arts, dual-language and other programs they need to succeed in an increasingly competitive global economy is not only ludicrous, it's an egregious dereliction of duty. Federal and state govermentments should first grow and protect school budgets to insure that we fully fund education. Lest testing simply functions as a way to measure failures, rather than create opportunities for success.

In my opinion, the parents, teachers and students who have protested PARCC need our support for their civic engagement. Isn't this the point of a democracy? Let's give it to them by emailing, calling and faxing everyone from the feds to the local school board until they shift the education policy goals back to providing teachers and resources for daily instruction, and away from what appears a disproportionate focus on testing. As they say in boxing parlance, "No Daylight!" Keep your gloves in their faces! Let them know you reject testing over teaching in public schools.

Andrea L Mays, is a Santa Fean and an American Studies scholar. Weigh in on her take on contemporary culture and politics by writing andrea@sfreporter.com


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