When Children Became Reduced to Test Scores

                There is a message being ingrained in the minds of children and young adults.  The message is: “you are a test score.”  Beginning in elementary and continuing in middle and high school, this message is validated through the implementation and instruction of content that is designed to familiarize children and young adults with the kind of questions that may appear on the upcoming standardized test.  Further validation of this message comes from the school principals and teachers who under the veil of encouragement and school pride attempt to get children and young adults to obtain the desired target score.

 

                The emphasis on, benchmarks and standardized test scores has been a cult like conviction since the late 1980/early 1990s, among advocates who believe that test scores are effective indicators of opportunities and roles  young adults will have when they leave high school.  The No Child Left Behind legislation gave advocates a permanent platform by making test scores the seminal piece of the educational process.  With the ability to penalize administrators, teachers, schools and districts for not meeting specific academic targets, an unprecedented era of education began.  In this era success is measured not by what students learn, retain and recall, success is a specific target score on a standardized test that determines proficiency.

 

                The results of children becoming reduced to test scores has made, learning fragmented, one dimensional, absent of purpose, and irrelevant to the lives of children and young adults.  From their perspective, this is why learning is “boring.”  Furthermore, children and young adults have no incentive to change their perspective because they understand they have been reduced from an individual into a test score. 

 

                Evidence of this understanding of being reduced to a test score was demonstrated in the number of administrators and teachers in districts across the country that were involved in testing scandals where students were directly led to choosing the right answers or incorrect answers where changed after the tests were completed are given back to the teacher.  The lesson learned by children and young adults from the testing scandal is that “your test score is more important than what you learned.”  Also evident of this the harsh belief is that “if you don’t test well, you will end up as nothing.”

 

                Children and young adults hear from administrators, teachers and parents about the consequences of not achieving the desired target score.  Based on the score, children and young adults take on the labels based on the score they receive.  The score also determines how children and young adults will be treated.  Children and young adults will begin to see a difference in the way instruction is provided by finding themselves in groups based on their scores.  For children and young adults with scores of basic or below basic, unfortunately, some may allow their score to define them.  These children and young adults embrace the label and disengage from school because “school has nothing for them.” 

 

                The reduction of children and young adults from individuals to test scores allows legislators to continue to justify their cult like conviction and gives administrators and teachers’ permission to provide instruction in a manner that is not in the best interest of what children and young adults learn, retain and recall.

 

If we ever hope to regain confidence in our educational system and re-engage children and young adults to embrace academic achievement, we can no longer reduce children to test scores and not care about what they actually learn, retain and recall.