Standardized testing not the answer for education

I have been told that the reason many people enjoy reading my columns week after week is because they aren't angry, bitter or raging, like what is typically found in college media outlets. Many college newspaper writers think a columnist's job is simply an outlet to vent and, to a point, they are correct. I have tried to hold back my true feelings and gripes, but I have found I can no longer keep my silence. I will, at last, rant about something that irritates and troubles me to my core: standardized testing.

Being a secondary education student, I have had many classes that teach one thing above all else: lessons, curriculums, and tests all must teach to the standards set out by the state under the No Child Left Behind Act. The consequence of not doing so: termination. Frustration fills my body and blood rushes to my face when this act is discussed in class. I want to throw off the shackles of common decency and rant and rave about how standardized testing is wrong and evil and that by holding teachers' feet to the fire nothing positive will get accomplished. But I control myself for the most part leaving the ranting and raving to my classmates, a majority of who agree with me.

The biggest problem I have is this: The standards handcuff the creativity in learning, both in and out of the classroom. Though Colorado has had standards for education for the last 15 years or so, teachers were not handcuffed and could teach students the important things in each of the content areas. Teachers could get down to the nitty-gritty of their subject area without someone looking over their shoulders. There are those on this campus, in this state, and even in this nation who have a hard time remembering back to the not-too-distant past, where schools did not have standards as a law and people came out of public schools pretty smart. These are the people we call the baby-boomers, the flower children, and the "John Hughes" generation. It wasn't until these people starting having kids and looking at them did they, and the powers that be, think to make anything of educational standards. It wasn't until this nation started comparing test scores and achievement levels with the rest of the world.

The measure isn't fair. Not every country in the world allows every child to go to high school. In Germany, for example, the students are tracked through elementary school and then selected to go to either the high school, or to a vocational school where the education is more trade oriented. It is the best and the brightest in their high schools, whereas here in America we have everyone in high school. So, when we look at the comparison we are comparing the brightest students in Germany (as well as other countries with similar education processes) to every high school student in America, be they bright, average, or on the short end of the bell curve. The measurements do not stack up.

However-and this is sad to report-this measurement is the foundation for these fundamental changes in our education system today. It is why we have No Child Left Behind and mandatory standards linked to government funding. It is unfair, but the government is trying to legitimize something that is wholly unethical and, in many ways, contradictory. For example, if a district shows failing test scores for a length of time they are given more money to improve. If improvement is not seen then the money is yanked. This has forced many school districts, Denver Public Schools for one, to cut away the dying limb. In the last year, several Denver Public Schools have been given the axe (Gove and Cole Middle schools, for example) and others are on the chopping block for this year as well. Their crime: low test scores and other infractions. The district has outright closed one school (Gove) and turned the other (Cole) into a Charter school. The district did not want to do this; they had to in order to keep federal funding coming into the district. And it's not fair. To compensate, they have had to turn many elementary schools into K-8 schools and shifted teachers all around the district in a chaotic effect.

I have seen the effects of this first hand. I work at an area high school and have, for the last few weeks, sat in on staff meetings of other English teachers. Every meeting has the same topic of conversations: how are we going to fit our curriculums into these standards? These are not bad teachers by any means. In fact, many would call them exceptional teachers, who have the track record and the reputation of excellence required in this particular district. Now, they are forced to change everything they know, everything they've developed, and every time-tested and student-approved lesson they have created in order to make them all fit into the standards for fear of losing their jobs. They are now succumbing to teaching toward the test. They are being forced to make the choice of moving on from the lessons and curriculums they love and know by heart into something that is bastardized and soulless. One teacher, who has 27 years experience, sits with her hand covering her face, trying not to show her frustration. She knows the times have changed, but the students haven't, so why should her lessons. Why should she and every other qualified teacher in this country have to fix what isn't broken just because a few parents don't like seeing Fs on their child's report card; just because our average, American kids aren't as smart as Europe's elite; just because we choose our own educational destiny?