Dear Editor:
Education is slipping in America. Since 2002, The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has ranked America from 18th in PISA math to 31st with similar scores in science. People argue the cause of this, but one reason in particular stands out, standardized tests. Since the education system in America is based on standardized tests, it is only safe to to assume decreased scores is because of focus on standardized tests.
This is a highly controversial topic. Every point one side might argue, the other argues the opposite. The approach that should be taken is a simple look at the facts. Despite being arguably the most powerful western country in the world, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) finds that America ranks significantly below the OECD average. This overwhelming decline in education allows for only one plausible action, change our system of education.
Consider this analogy, when someone gets gets a checkup from their doctor and their doctor says they gained 15 pounds, they are not going to keep living the way they lived! They are going to change the way they eat, change the way they live. When people realize something is not working, they change it. It is as simple as that. America’s education system is not working, so what should America do? Change standardized tests.
Standardized tests need to be changed for a variety of reasons. The most prominent among them being the decline in student achievement. In 2011, The National Research Council found that test-based incentive programs were not productive. Despite using them for several decades, policymakers and educators do not yet know how to use test-based incentives to consistently generate positive effects on achievement and to improve education. It is proven time and time again that standardized tests are not allowing students to reach their full potential.
The great flaw of standardized tests is their unreliability and their bias. Standardized tests do not reliably measure student performance. In 2001 a study was conducted by the Brooking Institution, it found that 50-80 percent of yearly progression was temporary and “caused by fluctuations that had nothing to do with long-term changes in learning…”
Potential solutions exist to the problem at hand. It is suggested that education be based on a more project-oriented system. Not only is this a true demonstration of the student’s performance in education, it also allows the student to be innovative and provides communication skills used in collaboration with other students.
A test’s purpose is to establish the quality and mastery a student has in any particular subject. This cannot happen if the test is biased and unreliable. So, continue the decline in American education, or accept change.
Sincerely,
Jonas Kasten, freshman
