The Test of Time

 

Let me start by saying that I am not against standardized tests. As a parent, business leader, and former school board member, I can see how math and reading are important enough building blocks for an educational experience to break down into tests, test scores, and evaluations of students and schools based on those test scores. Particularly at scale, this makes sense to me, even if I appreciate the importance of "learning for learning's sake" and whatnot.

However, as is expressed in this recent Chronicle of Education article, one downside of prioritizing standardized tests is that education has become "atomized," meaning that we decide what needs to be learned, break that down into measurable pieces, and then create an infrastructure of teaching and testing to capture each piece. Which is fine for institutionalizing standardized testing into a large school district, but not great for making space for the sort of complex and long-form learning that truly prepares our kids for success in the workforce and as grown-ups.

I particularly love the anecdote in the article along the lines of the students asking the teacher how they will grade their work, and the teacher, quite unsatisfactorily for the students, basically says, "I'll review your work and give you a grade," without being able to specify what is "A" work vs. "C" work. Breaking it all down is what our kids have long been used to; just knowing what is good and what is bad is more like how the world works.

I haven't taught in over five years, but as a parent I'm essentially constantly teaching. And I've lost track of the times I've asked my kids to do something without telling them how to do it, and how often they are both unable to do it and somewhat annoyed that I would give them something to do without telling them how to do it. How dare I! And yet, again, this is how the world works: problems are presented to us, almost always without an instruction manual, and we have to figure out whether and how to solve them.

Time is undefeated, so eventually our kids will go through enough experiences to gain some problem-solving skills, and perhaps more importantly some confidence that they can figure things out when presented with a new problem for which they do not immediately know the steps to overcome it. I appreciate the Chronicle article for sensitizing me to this dynamic, which I will now keep my eye out on both in the classroom, at work, and in the home.