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opinion:
manifesto
Over-reliance
on testing hurts students
In an earlier Manifesto,
I argued against the effectiveness of SAT examinations and questioned
the merits of pinning an outcome on the passing of a single
standardized test.
Now the same problems
appear in a test given to students throughout most of their
years in the elementary, middle and high school levels. This
is the Stanford 9, or SAT-9, test given to students from grades
2 through 11.
The main problem
with the test is that, in California, the SAT-9 is the only
gauge that the state uses to measure educational reform. The
scores of every school are ranked on the Academic Performance
Index, which is released every fall. The index is just the
results of the SAT-9 test.
The problem of
the index, and the SAT-9 by extension, is that a single test
cannot measure how well students are learning. Often, a test
just reflects on the student's ability to take the test. Yet
the state has a lot riding on the SAT-9 because the API determines
whether schools receive extra funding. If a school ranks high
on the index, it gets more money.
Teachers, principals
and school superintendents must now treat students as precious
little revenue generators. Because the SAT-9 determines how
educational funds are disbursed, school districts have a great
interest in "teaching to the test."
Class assignments
and homework must serve as test drills. Students must be given
problems that closely resemble those given on the SAT-9 in
structure and degree of difficulty.
So what's the problem?
Students do not learn any useful knowledge or problem-solving
skills for a career. Nor do they learn anything about history,
the arts, music or literature. Students spend most of their
school day learning to become better test takers.
The California
Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education, an organization
that criticizes the state's reliance on high-stakes testing,
points out that teachers have a choice between covering what
will be on the test or what is on the curriculum. Parts of
one or the other must be sacrificed.
This test does
not help students, teachers or schools. Teachers must now
prime students for the test rather than pass their knowledge
onto a younger generation of learners. Since school districts
must compete for money, they must treat other districts as
enemies rather than partners working to educate California's
youths.
The SAT-9 has been
political ever since it was first implemented in California.
Former Gov. Pete Wilson did not sign off on a budget bill
in 1997 unless it came with money to buy a standardized test,
according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The SAT-9 was selected,
and it was first used in 1998.
Since taking office,
Gray Davis has embraced even more testing as the solution
to California's educational problems, including an exit examination
that 12th graders must pass before they get a high school
diploma.
Because of its
many flaws, the SAT-9 may have a lot of money behind its results,
but the test is not worth the paper it's printed on.
Chris Ledermuller
is a print journalism major at Cal State Long Beach.
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