Student Testing Season
Families, schools, and communities everywhere are rallying around students and encouraging them as they partake in the annual testing rituals that not only cause anxiety for many students but also serve as a reminder of the increased role testing plays in elementary and secondary education. The centrality of standardized testing has, for sure, converted young people into focused test-takers and teachers into reluctant test-givers. One unfortunate reality has been the stifling of academic curiosity and the dumbing down of schools nationwide. While most of us support greater accountability and higher standards in public schools, we did not envision an education landscape that would become so rigid and stale in the teaching pedagogy. How we accomplish our priorities for public education continues to challenge us, but we must persist in our efforts to build from the first steps toward higher quality teaching and learning. Creativity, innovation, and flexibility must be paramount so that we allow young people ample time and space to explore and engage their unique interests and aptitudes. Surely we can all work together to develop guidelines, testing formats, and exercises that produce the higher academic performances and increased accountability for which we are all striving.
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