Another egghead for testing, please respond with comments

[Arthur Hu <ArthurH@TANGIS.COM>]

Date sent:              Wed, 07 Jun 2000 08:04:56 -0500
From:                   JimmyKilpatrick <JimmyKilpatrick@EducationNews.org>
Subject:                Inside the Classroom  Outlawing tests by Dean L.
Kalahar, M.Ed.
To:                     deankalahar@mindspring.com
Copies to:              deankalahar@mindspring.com

http://www.educationnews.org/inside_the_classroom__outlawing_.htm

Inside the Classroom 
Outlawing tests
by Dean L. Kalahar, M.Ed.

At one time children would go to school and graduate with a high school
diploma that defined a level of proficiency and skill providing potential
employers assurance of competency. Today, that same diploma means very
little to the owner of the local fast food restaurant who is struggling to
find fresh graduates who can count change. So what has happened? Public
schools have successfully watered down the curriculum as well as
graduation requirements to the point that attendance is many times the
sole criteria for graduation.

In 26 states things are beginning to change with the implementation of
exit exams to test for basic skills. Students must take these tests in
order to graduate and are given numerous chances as well as remedial
classes to pick up on skills that they failed to learn. If a high school
diploma is going to have worth, all kids must be tested and master the
basic skills of reading writing and arithmetic. There is no better way of
holding students, teachers and parents accountable for their children's
education then by testing kids and holding them to some, albeit low degree
of proficiency.

Not so quick, according to Senator Paul Wellstone from Minnesota.
Wellstone is introducing a bill that would allow students to graduate from
high school even if they do not pass state mandated exit exams.
Additionally, his bill would prohibit states from using a single test to
decide if a student would advance to the next grade. According to the Star
Tribune, Wellstone calls these tests ³a harsh agenda². He continues by
saying that if you ³don't graduate there are pretty cataclysmic
consequences² and ³you don¹t want to err on the side of the child².

Correct me if I am wrong but life issues a harsh agenda and consequences
will be cataclysmic to the children who graduate without the skills
necessary to be productive citizens. If we truly have the best interest of
children in mind we better err on the side of the child and hold them to
standards so that upon graduation they will be able to get a job at the
local burger joint. The problem is not with kids, for they will step up to
the plate and master the basic skills as long as they can avoid those
teachers who do not teach, it lies with a system that is out of touch with
established theories of production and quality.

If a business continuously had defective products coming off the assembly
line it would look to the manufacturing process to find out where the
deficiency came from and fix it. If the problem was in the machinery they
would replace it. If the problem was in the raw materials they would work
to enhance the supply. More importantly, if the workmanship flaws were
caused by the workers, they would offer training or if needed hold them
accountable and replace them with workers who had the proper skills to get
the job done. Our schools don¹t see it this way and the education
establishment continues to make excuses and send out defective goods
without a care because they get paid no matter how lousy the product
performs.

Inside the classroom, students will always complain about taking tests but
if you listen they will also tell you that exit tests are not difficult
and that if you can¹t pass them you have no business getting a diploma. In
fact students place the blame, for those who can¹t pass the tests, on lazy
students who refuse to do the work and educators who do not teach. Kids do
not mind being held to standards, in fact most think the standards should
be higher and complain of being insulted by having to waste time taking
tests designed for simple minds. As usual the status quo has jumped onto
the Wellstone measure in order to maintain their power and built in
excuses for a failing education system with misguided calls of compassion
and fairness. Groups endorsing the bill include, the NAACP, the National
Women's Law Center, the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, the National
Education Association and the National Urban League as well as others.

These groups use typical cries of inequality and lack of opportunity
towards poor and minority populations as the reason that the tests are not
fair. What they don¹t tell you is that they want special treatment not
equality. Their argument that the system has failed these kids in
fulfilling its responsibility to teach sounds good but they are the very
ones who have created the system. In education terms we have allowed the
fox to run the hen house and then are supposed to listen to the fox when
it cries foul? I don¹t think so.

Senator Wellstone, who earned a doctorate at age 24 even though he has a
self disclosed learning disability, sums up the irony quite appropriately
when he says that testing is ³unconscionable² and ³rooted in a kind of
moral blindness². It seems to me that hard work and accountability worked
just fine for Mr. Wellstone, I just can¹t figure out why it no longer
applies to kids today. Let¹s be honest, what is morally wrong is the
unconscionable belief that standards and accountability are less important
than allowing children to pass through a school system without being able
to read or write.

Copyright 2000 by Dean L. Kalahar

Dean L. Kalahar is a high school teacher of American Government,
Economics, Psychology and History. He has worked in the field of public
education for 16 years as a teacher, administrator and coach.

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