If there is one thing that we should all take away from our experience in high school it’s that standardized tests are a poor indicator of performance.
Our society’s obsession with State Standardized testing and AP tests is getting out of control, and it is crippling our education system.
The basic idea is this: if we have universal tests we can quantify and rank people’s intelligence and fix problem areas. However, the reality is this: Teachers teach students how to take the test, or school’s lower standards so that students technically “pass.”
Even a friend of mine at UVM said that she felt that she was not a good writer when she first got to college because she spent her senior year learning how to write an essay for the AP English exam — a skill that she says did not translate into being a good writer.
Intelligence and education is far too complex to be standardized. By focusing on measuring progress we’re missing the real point: progress itself.
If we invest more resources in education, and increase the standards and salary for being a teacher in elementary, middle, and high school, we will see in increase in education.
And you know how we’ll know when it’s working? More kids from inner cities attending college, a boost in entrepenuership and the economy, less crime, and lower drop-out rates. That’s how we’ll know.
