Jill Fales’ Column: Mom’s Voice - How accurate is standardized testing?

A child takes a test. TIM BOYLE, GETTY IMAGES

Education is a hot button for me. And right now, you'd need an oven mitt just to get near me.

Consider this – Children in California public schools are subjected to SIX school days that are dedicated to state standardized tests. In addition, for weeks leading up to the STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting Results) tests, kids spend good portions of their day preparing for them. N-MUSD kids are gearing up for the grueling testing week this month.

STAR tests are presented in a multiple choice format so teachers cannot see work, or understand a student's thinking process. Educators have no way of knowing why a child chose an answer, information that could help children and educators in the learning process. Standardized tests typically ignore critical thinking, curiosity, empathy, self-awareness, leadership, resourcefulness and ingenuity; all traits essential for the increasingly complex world in which we live. They can be narrow in scope, giving no insight into the vast capabilities within our children.

Former teacher and author, Alphie Kohn, who was recently described by "Time" magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades (and) test scores," doesn't sugarcoat it. "A plague has been sweeping through American schools, wiping out the most innovative instruction and beating down some of the best teachers and administrators. Ironically, that plague has been unleashed in the name of improving schools. Invoking such terms as 'tougher standards', 'accountability', and 'raising the bar', people with little understanding of how children learn have imposed a heavy-handed, top-down, test-driven version of school reform that is lowering the quality of education in this country."

I agree with Kohn that the absurd levels of testing taking place is not "a reality to be coped with – but rather a political movement that must be opposed."

In fact, we have a legal right to oppose it, by simply "opting out." A handwritten or typed note to the principal requesting your child not be given the tests is all it takes. The law states: "... a parent's or guardian's written request to school officials to excuse his or her child from any or all parts of the assessments administered pursuant to this chapter shall be granted."

I encourage all parents to "opt out" and instead, in those hours, have their child pursue a passionate project, or read a great book.

Noteworthy, was my phone call to the California Department of Education that transferred me to the STAR office in Sacramento.

I was certain my questions would be met with canned rhetoric in support of STAR testing. Unexpectedly, the woman on the other line was a wealth of information. The questions and answers gave way to a candid conversation in which she called the STAR test a waste of time, money and energy. At one point she said, "The focus should be on teaching a well-rounded person with all the arts and other things, (testing) narrows the curriculum. They need to expand the curriculum to be fully developed."

I believe assessment as a tool should be used to benefit both child and teacher, but I have yet to be convinced STAR testing does either. The money and human resources would be better spent on bringing in dynamic guest speakers, going on field trips, building robotics, purchasing science equipment and musical instruments, and hiring specialty teachers and instructional assistants. How about teaching kids in elementary school a foreign language, expanding the school garden, or starting a student-run newspaper?

On a daily basis, there are those stand-out teachers who provide our children with the opportunity for higher-level thinking, creative projects, team activities and extended analysis of a subject. Let's let teachers get back to their real jobs and put what's best for kids back in the center of our decision making.

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