Are high stakes tests, moving California American students forward or backward in regards to academics and creativity?

As the new school year begins, it will bring homework, new teachers, and the yearly high-stakes test. Every year California American students take a standardized test which is supposed to benefit them in both their education and their school funding. Teachers stress teaching the test to students in order to get more funding for their school, meet the state’s standards, and still be able to teach their children something valuable before they leave at the end of the school year.

Teachers in the U.S. carry the duties of teaching their students to succeed on high-stakes tests; I am here to tell you that standardized tests are doing a poor job with moving our students forward to academic success and creativity. In fact, studies in the recent years suggest that it is common for American children fall well behind children from other countries. The U.S. is ranked 30th in mathematics literacy, 20th in science and 14th in reading in 2009 Student Assessment (PISA).

We can achieve a better future for our students by addressing our problems in testing. We are the only country in the world that tests our students every year. And because we make these high stakes tests “high,” American students are only learning to do well in these tests, and are becoming robotic memorizing machines. And sciences, social studies, art, music, and physical education; things that make student creative and critical thinkers has been pushed aside.

 

“All of us have had experiences in which we “learned” something in school without understanding it. Think about the tests for which you memorized facts you could not explain, or the assignments for which you quoted relevant passages of the textbook without a clue what they meant or why they mattered” (Starko, A. 2013).

Most of us have experienced a point in our education where we have learned something in school and did not understand it. For example there are many times when I read something in my U.S. History/Economic book and just did not understand what it meant and why it should matter to me.

Alane Starko, the author of Creativity on the Brink says,

“Students develop understanding by applying what they learn in diverse ways and multiple settings. Creative applications of core content are among teachers’ most powerful tools in building students’ understanding. If we want students to master the content, they must do something with it beyond simple repetition. They must use it in meaningful ways and make it their own” (Starko, A. 2013).

Starko wants us to understand that if students are going to understand the materials, teachers need to find creative ways of incorporating students to understand.

This includes teachers finding a creative way to help students learn despite U.S. public education facing the dilemma of the huge achievement gap, created by the standardized tests.

Let’s say that in the reading and writing section on California’s STAR test they plan to have a question that asks, “Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.” As a teacher you might help them practice by thinking about how students can use their own creativity to develop that skill. Maybe they could write, act out or plan a story to better understand the situation of the story  instead of just answering the question on a whim without fully understanding its context.

By doing practice exercises that promote students to think for themselves, teachers can begin to promote creativity as well as success in standardized testing. The only way we can improve our public education is by offering all children a chance at quality education that will move American students forward.

Reference List

Starko, A. (2013). Creativity on the Brink. Educational Leadership

Lawrence, L. (2013). Education Solutions from abroad for chronic U.S. problems. The Christian Science Monitor