While we all have our differences at LSU, it’s safe to say we’ve just about all shared one experience – standardized testing.
Whether it’s the ACT or the SAT, most students have to take at least one of these tests to get into college. And while some say the test are ineffectual in determining college preparedness, it’s unlikely we’ll be seeing them disappear any time soon.
In fact, the system seems to be spreading because for the past two years, Russia has been trying to implement a system similar to ours: the Unified State Exam (or EGE).
Established in mid-2009, it’s meant to be a program “directed against corruption” and to make the testing process “more transparent,” according to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. But it seems what it was meant to be in theory and what it’s doing in practice are two very different things.
While the EGE may have been set in place to help combat corruption, it seems it has had the opposite effect. According to Russia’s Interior Ministry, the amount of corruption has doubled since 2009, and it has moved into the schools themselves.
Whether it’s simply students cheating, or those higher up in the process altering results, it seems corruption has started to take a hold on Russian education.
But even without it, the situation for students in their system isn’t ideal.
Since the change in 2009, classrooms have begun to focus more and more on simply preparing students for the test. Instead of preparing students for college by properly educating them and giving them the foundations needed, they are forced to learn how to take a test just to get into college.
All of it sounds familiar, right?
As a future teacher, it’s impossible to ignore the effects programs like “No Child Left Behind” has had on the state of education in this country. As with Russia’s EGE, a change in testing has caused the educational system to move away from what it’s truly meant to do.
While our system might see some changes with President Obama’s education program, “Race to the Top,” it is still too closely based on the testing focus, which its predecessor brought in. While it may indeed help the educational system, it is still going in the wrong direction and needs to be corrected.
Still, I am not completely against all forms of standardized testing. Although tests like the SAT, ACT, Russia’s EGE, and LEAP may be flawed, those found in the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) programs offer a possible alternative.
While these courses may still be directed at an end test, they incorporate far more into their evaluation of a student than the SAT or ACT might. In the IB program, for example, students not only have to learn the facts and how to write an essay, but also to synthesize and apply the knowledge.
Combine this with ongoing evaluation in the form of presentations or exams throughout the program, and it’s easy to see the academic possibilities of a student. And as someone who has experienced the program firsthand, nothing else has come close to preparing me as much as it has.
While programs like IB and AP may be slowly growing in the U.S., it will be many years before they become anywhere near the norm.
In the meantime, the American education system must move away from relying on solitary tests like the ACT or the SAT and those which many schools nationwide now focus their teaching on.
As long as this focus toward testing exists in its current state, we face the same problems our former Cold War enemies do now.
 
Zachary Davis is a 20-year-old history junior from Warsaw, Poland. Follow him @TDR_zdavis.
 
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Contact Zachary Davis at
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