When students think of water, we want them to think divergently, to think of The Hoover Dam, Poseidon, H2O, Mars: standardized testing can help them do just that.
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The question at the heart of most arguments over how to best structure curriculum, schools, teacher recruitment, testing and all the rest, is the question of Education itself.
Namely, what is the point? What are we trying to achieve with Education?
What’s it all for?
Is it to ensure “College and Career Readiness” for young people? Is it to have a sufficiently literate population to safeguard against tyranny? Is it to give parents somewhere to put their kids so they can work? Is it to give a rowdy and diverse citizenry some common knowledge and experiences through which they can connect?
I tend to agree with W.B. Yeats, who posited that “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”.
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I tend to agree with W.B. Yeats, who posited that “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” My grandfather also opined that your brain is the one thing you will live with forever; best make it the best it can be.
In other words, I have a rather unpractical, philosophical take on Education: that it is a way of bringing the world alive. To take one example, you glean much more from visiting a museum if you’re familiar with the works there ahead of time. Even more illuminating is to have a guide of some kind to walk you through each and every piece. The little stories about the way a painting came together, the anecdotes about the artist, the many ways he or she sacrificed this or that to bring this work into being.
The more you know about what you’re seeing, the more fascinating it becomes. That is Education, to me. To give every student as much knowledge about what it is he or she sees. To bring the world alive.
The reader will find it un-shocking that not everyone shares this ultimate goal of Education.
But I don’t think everyone needs, or should, necessarily share my answer on the “what’s it all for” question of Education.
What we do all need is some answer to that question, up front.
And believe it or not, standardized testing is a sort of answer to that question.
Vertical Alignment is one of the unsung heroes of standardized testing.
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A curriculum that is “vertically aligned” simply means that each grade builds upon the last. So that what you learn in second grade is revisited, and then used as a stepping stone into third grade material, which itself leads into what is happening in fourth grade, and so on.
Test makers begin with the end question: What does a graduating senior need to know before leaving our school system forever?
The curriculum works backwards from there.
Test makers begin with the end question: What does a graduating senior need to know before leaving our school system forever? The curriculum works backwards from there.
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This is the most effective way of teaching, as the most seasoned of teachers can tell you. Should you leave room for exploration, unscheduled detours, unexpected insights?
Of course.
But having some kind of final chunk of knowledge in mind is exactly what allows for the detours.
A detour has no meaning if an actual path never existed in the first place.
And that set path is what standardized testing has offered to teachers, departments, schools, principals, parents, and – most importantly – students. Each year: here is what you need to know. Not just a random set of facts and figures, either.
It’s what you need to know so you’ll be ready for what comes next.
We’re working each day, each year, with the final goal in mind. And that goal is to have eighteen-year-olds graduating with a defined set of skills and knowledge.
Should these skills and knowledge guarantee “College and Career Readiness?” Undoubtedly. Should they provide young people with the critical thinking and literacy necessary to navigate the adult world, from job requirements to government policy? Definitely. Should schools provide parents a safe, meaningful community for their kids to spend the better part of ages 5 – 18? Yes. Should our curriculum include as much diversity in its history, social studies, literature and arts programs to make it inclusive, honest, and connective to all our students? Yes, yes, yes.
More than anything (for this writer, at least), these educational goals should serve to help students see more and more in the world around them. To see water and envision its molecular properties, its absolute vitality to us, to the earth. Or perhaps to think of the extraordinary water works built in this country, from the Hoover Dam to California’s irrigation system.
Maybe to think of its poetic potential.
Its personification in Poseidon.
Its scarcity in sub-Saharan Africa.
Its discovery on Mars.
And what I want to remind everyone is this: standardized testing does not stop such Education from happening. In fact, standardized testing has been one of the few ways to ensure students do learn what they need to know, so they can go on to the next grade.
So they can graduate knowing they know what they need to know.
That frees you to learn all the rest.
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Source: 30dB.com – Standardized Tests
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Photo: Flickr/Ralph Aversen