Do You Think Students Should Give up Standardized Tests?
This is the standardized testing season for many schools across the country. However, thousands of kids and their parents are boycotting tests, largely due to frustration with Common Core . Is rejection a good idea?
While most students take tests, some states estimate that 5 to 10% of students refuse. The opt-out movement has been growing in the past few years, and those who opt-out say these high-stakes tests create a “study-to-test” atmosphere, undermining actual learning. They argue that stress and anxiety for children, parents and teachers are misplaced; tests are poorly designed; and tests don’t help kids learn. ( The New York State United Teachers’ Union also allegedly called for a boycott of the Common Core exams.)
On the other hand, some consider standardized tests to be necessary to hold schools accountable and show how students grow each year in relation to each other.
This is not an easy decision, even if you think the tests are wrong. As Lisa T. McElroy writes on Slate :
In other words, my decision to give up teaching my children may not have any real effect here in Colorado, but on the other hand, if I support friends in other states who refuse to teach their children, I could lead to a decrease in the class of teachers and schools. lose funding. How do parents relate these very real consequences to their desire to do what is best for their children? As my friend Maria McKenna, Senior Associate Program Director for Education, Learning and Society at the University of Notre Dame, told me yesterday: “Parents become powerless when we hear about the devastating consequences that abandonment has on teachers. and schools. But of course, teachers and administrators are also powerless. This is insidious. ” Am I upholding my principles, both personal and political? Or do I put the interests of the very important people and institutions that educate my children ahead of the interests of my children? And how can I help make more parents, teachers, administrators and yes, politicians understand the madness that is our “responsibility above all” mentality?
What do you think? Would you opt out of your child’s participation in standardized tests? (Or you?)