People often complain about Christianity leaving the stateís public classroom. ìWhereís Jesus?î they question. Well, Jesus had to leave with the new accountability program. Thereís a new diety in the Louisianaís schoolsóstandardized tests. The Lordís Prayer is out, replaced by the Holy A, B, C, and Dís of the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program.
Surely, testing canít answer the stateís plethora of educational problems. The enlightenment of edification comes through actual instruction of subjects like reading, mathematics, and science, not testing knowledge of those subjects. In an attempt to improve test scores, teachers are now forced to teach Iowa and LEAP objectives, taking crucial classroom time away from achieving the goal the tests are supposed to accomplishóimproving the quality of education in Louisiana. Instead of focusing on whether a student can actually read, teachers must now focus on whether the student can pass the reading portion of whatever standardized test the state has decided to torture teachers and students with that year. A student being literate and being able to pass the reading portion of a standardized test are two totally different objectives.
Hereís a personal vignette on testing: I took Business Law at Amite High School, a medium sized, rural high school in north Tangipahoa Parish that has consistently mediocre tests scores, when I was in the tenth grade. One day the instructor assigned language arts worksheets to help improve the schoolís test scores in that area. When I started working on the worksheets I was appalled. The questions asked me to pick out the subjects and verbs of simple sentences, skills I mastered years before. When I looked at the bottom of the page, I learned the worksheets were designed to prep third graders for their respective standardized test. My intelligence had never before been so insulted, so I refused to complete the assignment. Though belligerance has no place in the classroom and I was consequently subject to disciplinary reprimand ó I feel no remorse for my actions that day.
Tests have become cornerstones of public education, and this infiltration is destroying the stateís public schools. I took Business Law to gain the legal knowledge and analytical reasoning skills that would help me become a more informed citizen and possibly assist me in gaining admittance to law school. Instead, I was relegated to picking out ìchasedî as the verb from the sentence ìSuzie chased the ball.î My story is not atypical ó talk to any teacher.
In the 21st century, creativity and independent thinking are skills necessary for success. So when officials say our state is LEAPing into the 21st century, itís ludicrous and sadly hilarious. A more accurate tagline would be LEAPing into an intellectual wasteland.
So why do we have all this testing? Because we have a bloated bureaucracy in our stateís educational systems.
Hereís my theory. A lot of teachers want to get out of the classroom and into the administration. Generally, itís a lot less work, and the promise of promotions keep many people in the educational field. Once former teachers get to the school board office or where ever, they create a lot of useless guidelines and paperwork to justify their existence as administrators, hence, the rise of importance of testing, an infinite source of bureaucratic nonsense.
Our state recently passed a constitutional amendment that allows the state to take over failing schools. The problems these failing schools face surely wonít be corrected by the state officials who are much further removed in geography and understanding of each schoolís issues.
Why donít we just let the classroom teachers teach? The state and federal government need to step back from direct involvement in schools. Sure, their guidance and expertise could be helpful, but the expansion of their authority will only lead to more problems.
Yes, test scores have slightly improved, but has education really improved? No.
Teaching tests does not improve the education; teaching tests impedes true educational processes and creates ìinside the boxî androids of Louisianaís youth unable to solve problems that donít have A, B, C, or D as answers already provided.