The Cookie Cutter Testing Trend

By Briana Madden, Reader Supported News

05 May 13

wo of the smartest people I know are college drop-outs. They are also two of the best people to engage with in any sort of meaningful debate. While I do love a good argument for its entertainment value alone, I enjoy deliberation with these two because they force me to consider more carefully my own stance and even, in rare and begrudging instances, make me change my mind. The reason this is possible - there are many different types of thinking.

This type of intelligence doesn't quite fit with quips like "I just couldn't hack it in school," something I hear often from both of them, in one form or another. There's a sense of dissonance where intellect meets a lack of academic excellence. The education-industrial complex tells us that a degree equals success. Yet in an age where college graduates can't get hired and it takes more accolades on a resume to land a job than information required to execute innocent civilians by drone, it would seem that the true value of education is diminishing.

The evaluation process used to measure educational success is becoming more and more dominated by the standardized test. According to ProCon.org, standardized testing has been in place since the mid-1800s. After No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2002, the use of standardized tests was mandated in all 50 states. A standardized test is one that is, according to W. James Popham, the former president of the American Educational Research Association, "administered, scored and interpreted in a standard, predetermined manner."

Let's focus for a moment on the word "predetermined." This term is used because every student's test is scored in the same way and according to very rigid standards. Most standardized tests are mainly multiple-choice questions and are graded by a machine, but even those questions that are open-ended and scored by hand leave little room for interpretation. This type of assessment means that students who come up with correct or reasonable answers in a way that does not match the predetermined standards are not considered correct. The problem - if students don't happen to think in the "right way," they are screwed when it comes to standardized tests. They are being set up to fail.

The problem goes beyond this. Not only are all students being evaluated based on a standard designed to measure one specific way of thinking, but they are also held up against a standard of knowledge gained outside the classroom. There is a certain expectation that students continue their learning at home, which has led to an advantage in test-taking for children who grow up with more resources than others. Consider the following question taken from a sixth-grade standardized test:

Question: A plant's fruit always contains seeds. Choose the item below that's not a fruit.

Answer Choices: A. Orange. B. Pumpkin. C. Apple. D. Celery

The correct answer is "D. Celery." This knowledge may be taken for granted by many, but only a family that can afford to buy fresh oranges and apples to eat and a fresh pumpkin on Halloween would know that the three items have seeds. Children whose families buy canned fruit to save money or who can't splurge on a pumpkin to carve are at a disadvantage.

The most controversial of standardized tests are known as high-stakes achievement tests because they carry a lot of weight for students, teachers and schools. For students, passing to the next grade or getting into a good high school is at stake. These tests, like the American College Testing Assessment (ACT), even determine who gets a shot at a college degree. So students spend their entire academic careers through high school discarding new ways of thinking in favor of conforming to the way the test wants them to think. Teachers' jobs and school funding are on the chopping block as well. This leads to a lot of pressure being put on teachers to ensure their students do well on these tests, which means thin curriculums and drilling students in the classroom, or "teaching to the test." The result - less creativity, less critical-thinking, and less preparation for real life.

I will be a college graduate in one week. After spending sixteen years in the American education system, I can't help but wonder what my time was worth. Am I smarter than those who didn't do well in elementary school and high school and "couldn't hack it" in college? No. I simply happen to think the way test writers wanted me to, and I was lucky in the family I was born into. I know this, but many employers will toss out a resume that is not bursting with evidence of academic success. So, what is the value of standardized education if not the stifling of innovation and the messages sent to those who break the mold that they "can't hack it" in life?

Briana Madden earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from Illinois State University and is an Editor at Reader Supported News.