My Thoughts on Standardized Testing

LINK: Parents-outraged-after-nearly-75-percent-of-students-fail-writing-portion-of-2012-FCAT-

After reading this article, I figured I should jot down my thoughts on this matter, as it has always been something that I have very strong feelings about, as I am sure most people do. By the way, the result of this mass of failings was that the State Board of Education decided to lower to standards for a passing score on the test, meaning that instead of 75% of students failing the writing portion of the FCAT, 80% of them actually passed! *winkwink!* What a great way to make educating our children a priority. Instead of admitting that something with the test is wrong, and thus needs to be removed, they admit that our students are just too stupid to pass the standards they set (which I am sure weren't too high).

Thing is, this brings up two issues now that we need to address: one, is the FCAT really doing it's job? Should we overhaul it, replace it, or remove it? Are standards really TOO high? Second, are our students really that inept at literacy that they cannot pass a writing test? Are our students really just uneducated? Whose fault is that? Apparently, what got the students was the higher standards placed on grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and quality of the writing. Now, in my opinion, I believe standards on those particular parts of a students writing ability should always be high. I am a big advocate in high quality writing and seeing how kids and teens write these days really grinds my gears. But the bigger question is, is teaching to the FCAT (which is what many teachers are forced to do in schools in Florida these days) the reason why so many students are so bad at writing, or are there other factors impacting it as well?

Besides teaching to the FCAT, I do believe that a lot of knowledge loss is being done at home, where parents are putting their children in front of TVs, video games, computers, and cellphones, instead of books and extra-curricular activities vital to a child's development. The FCAT is a horrible thing, but parents are not helping either. Text speak and ghetto language seems to be most popular amongst kids these days. The less grammar and punctuation you have, the cooler you are! And don't you dare correct someone for their grammar, oh no. That's not cool. I've seen what kids write on the internet and it is horrible to see that they cannot differentiate between there, their, and they're, nor can they differentiate between then and than. Nor do they know when to use commas or periods (often times they never use them at all). The more they get used to writing this way, the more it sticks and when they get older, they will have a harder time breaking out of it and actually may not at all.

Standardized testing in and of itself is a plague on education. Although I passed my FCAT back in high school, standardized testing did not stop there. Colleges forced students to take tests before entering, and if they failed a certain portion they were forced into taking an extra course related to that portion before being able to take courses required for their degree. On top of that, I was forced to take the CLAST as requirement for graduating, although my adviser later removed this requirement after I told him I did not need it because I already passed all my classes required. It didn't stop there, as I was also forced to take a foreign language test as it was also required for my degree. They really put a lot of burden and worry on my shoulders and on top of that, they weren't cheap. The tests do not actually test anything about what a student knows and doesn't know. It may test how well a student is at short term memory, but like high GPAs, passing a standardized test does not necessarily mean you are knowledgeable in that particular testing area. Because of this, I can't help but wonder why the school board is so certain we need these tests. Is it money? Is it boredom? There is no logical reason to keep the tests, so why?

Our country really needs an education overhaul. Our parents need to enforce it more on their children, our schools need to hire more qualified teachers, and our students need to actually start caring about it. How is that other countries can teach their children to value their education but we can't seem to get them to read one book? I'm not sure what the school boards are thinking or doing, but I think we need to get more qualified people in those positions, like, people with actual degrees in education or actual experience teaching, rather than the old farts who know nothing in there right now. Just my two cents.