Skewed columns from FRED, a monthly newsletter
published by the Worcester County Teachers
Association. Editor, Gwendolyn Lehman Skewed And so, another round of high school testing
has come and gone, and, as far as I can tell, the
universe has not become an appreciably better place
for it. Oh, maybe for a minute or two there, when
the promise of perfect scores still existed, that
moment before pencil was put to paper and all the
heads looked like they might have something in them
~ at that moment, at just that moment, the universe
may have been a better place. Naah. I mean, really, folks, what are we trying to
do here and why? Consider: prior to NCLB, we ~ that
would be the U.S. ~ was doing okay. Well, that is
if having sole superpower status is an adequate
measure of "okay." And, I would argue that one
reason we have remained a superpower is not because
everybody has taken and passed a standardized test
with wizardly high scores, but precisely because
they haven't. Sure those Korean kids are out-scoring ours
in math at a truly amazing rate, but the technology
their country is stealing is ours. I firmly believe
our system, which does let some people fall through
pretty wide cracks, could be greatly improved. BUT
my argument is that this is not the way to do it.
All of this test, test, testing brings with it
teach, teach, teaching for the test. And thus, we
find ourselves stifling just the sort of creative
thinking that breeds innovation, technological and
scientific breakthroughs, and artistic creation
that actually has a heart and a soul and not just a
purse. What are we doing? If the polls are correct,
much of the public seems to know what we're doing
and disapproves of it. Why are we still doing it?
Because somebody told us if we can't compete on a
standardized test then we can't compete. Well, for
a long time we have been and we've been winning.
Why hasn't anybody noticed? JANUARY 06
Gwendolyn Lehman