I’ve never been a fan of education that “teaches to the test.” Now, a new study from the UK supports the view that the relentless focus on preparing children for national exams has lessened their cognitive and conceptual development and ability to handle new ideas. In fact, they claim, 11- and 12-year-olds are “now on average between two and three years behind where they were 15 years ago,” in these regards.
This is worrisome news even for those of us in the U. S., especially in states like New York that require a slate of subject-matter exams for high-school graduation. It’s no secret that many high schools teach to these tests. There’s no easy solution on a broad scale, in my opinion. (Or if there is, it’s bound to be blocked by someone of a different political or philosophical persuasion.) The small-scale solution is for us as parents to make sure our children get exposed to concepts and hands-on experience above and beyond what they are taught in schools.
In Texas, teaching to the test starts from the day a child walks in the kindergarten door. More and more PreK programs are preparing young children for the rigors of kindergarten, not the fun of it.
What kids are losing by learning to pass tests are critical thinking skills. As parents and teachers, we can foster teach and foster these skills very early, every day. Read, read, and read to them some more and ask questions, ask questions and ask more questions.
[...] I love the way he so easily synthesizes the various worlds to create something at once familiar and original. His creativity here is more impressive to me than his knowledge of letters and numbers (though I’m proud of that, too); it means he’s thinking, not just parroting. My goal is to help him maintain this ability throughout his school years, despite the test-based teaching that seems to be prevalent these days (as I discussed in a previous post). Maybe one of his high-school science projects will be to create a mashup of Google Maps 14.0 and some data source we can’t even imagine right now. I’ll definitely print a page and hang it on the refrigerator. by D | posted in Child Development, Education [...]
[...] I’ve written a lot about politics this week, so in lieu of the weekly political roundup I’ve been doing, I’ll point out a hysterical satire on educational testing by Anna Quindlen in Newsweek. I’ve written before that I take a dim view of “teaching to the test”; Quindlen, however, dares to dream what might happen if standardized testing continues to spread and we implement federal tests for waiters, plumbers, moms, members of Congress, and even the president. by D | posted in Politics, Funny If It Wasn’t Scary, Education [...]
[...] In the end, though, as I’ve written before, “teaching to the test” is a short-sighted method, and may even limit children’s cognitive skills. Yes, tests are an important part of educational assessment, but they cannot be the sole metric. Even the No Child Left Behind Web site asserts that “Surely a quality education reaches far beyond the confines of any specific test.” Unfortunately, the reality seems to be that the No Child Left Behind testing requirements are limiting many children’s educations. by D | posted in Education [...]