More Tests On the Horizon
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In the Atlanta Journal/the Atlanta Constitution, Saturday, July 26, 1996, page A5, there was an article announcing that the Atlanta public school system has joined President Clinton's efforts to have every fourth grader tested in reading and every eighth grader tested for basic math skills. The article cites only six states that have joined the testing bandwagon: North Carolina, Maryland, Michigan, West Virginia, Massachusetts, and Kentucky. Fifteen big-city school districts, including Atlanta, have signed up as of Friday. Why is this of any concern to homeschoolers? In my opinion there are reasons to be concerned.
First of all, it seems that our children are already being tested enough. In public school in Georgia, the students take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills each year. How many other tests of the same kind are needed to assess the level of skill that our children have attained?
When a new test is required it takes hold gradually. Eventually, we could all be taking this test. In the case of homeschoolers and possibly other alternative education situations parents may be required to pay for this exam. This would be in addition to the taxes we already pay to support programs that we and the public schools don't necessarily benefit from. It would be one more needless expense for parents who don't choose public education for their children.
President Clinton and Governor Miller seem to think along the same lines. Because of this, we could be concerned that at some point Georgia would jump on the "testing bandwagon." We are already taking the ITBS or another standardized test. We are being required to take SAT II's if we wish to attend a state college. There have been rumors that additional testing will be required to be eligible for federal funds for college. It doesn't matter what scores a student has achieved on the SAT I or ACT. It seems that there is always one more test required. None of these tests measure personal qualities like determination, self-discipline or honesty.
Dr. Betty Strickland, assistant superintendent of instruction for Atlanta public schools, was quoted as saying, "The Atlanta public school system remains committed to participating in innovative programs to enhance the education of our students." While a dedication to innovative programs is commendable, tests aren't innovative. We have been using them for years. We already have tests (the SAT I) whose scores have been "recentered" because the results were so poor. These tests have been in use for years and have not improved education. The tests have only indicated that our students are not performing as well as in the past. If a new testing program is innovative, then how it is innovative is not mentioned in this article. It seems that more testing is advocated to once again avoid truly defining the problems in our schools. If we spend so much time testing and/or teaching students how to take tests, there is even more time lost that could have been used for real learning. Testing is a thermometer for the health of education. We already know from results on tests currently in use that there is a problem and our educational systems are not as healthy as we all would like them to be; the tests have yet to define the cause of the problem.
I do think more test preparation courses will spring forth from this. Just look at how many test preparation books are on the shelves the next time you are in the book store. Also, notice on the high school bill boards near the schools for announcements on SAT test preparation. There is also the tax money that is being spent for computer software to raise SAT scores. Why wouldn't someone see this new money making opportunity?
There is also the question of relevance in comparing our students to students in other countries in the world. It seems that if our students are going to be compared to children in the rest of the world we should probably be concerned about more than just math and reading on two grade levels. The consensus is that our schools do need improving. We are not looking at why our students are already doing poorly on standardized tests they already take. HOW will comparing our students to other students in the world give better definition to our own problems or more information on how to solve these problems?
This is not a raging problem at the moment. It will become more of a problem if more states and cities jump on the "testing bandwagon." It is almost as if politicians and bureaucrats are determined to divert energy away from defining the real problems and creating real solutions. To them more testing is a solution to a problem that has not been truly defined.
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