Evaluate intangibles too
Tests of one kind or another have always been with us. Many tests are necessary, worthwhile, and are the only or best way to measure something.
Lately however, with more and more weight put behind standardized testing it seems tests have become a be-all, end-all - something they should not be.
As a teacher I see the effects of the drive to conquer the WASL, Washington's assessment of student learning. School districts and the schools that comprise them, administrators, teachers, parents, and students get caught up in a frenzy surrounding meeting and exceeding the standards.
Meanwhile, we forget to appreciate what the WASL and its kind don't test.
Things like the fact that Sarah is one of the kindest people you'll ever meet, or the fact that John would bend over backward to help someone else, or how Ellen is just so respectful. Or how some students honestly try very hard even though they often do not have much to show for it.
I will admit straightaway that you cannot pass or graduate a student based on their personality or effort alone - that is not what I am suggesting. Accountability is absolutely necessary in education and standardized testing does have a function.
My goal, though, is to remind us, as we read about the latest results, to see the good in our students that tests do not report; there are so many positive characteristics that to my mind can rise above the academic skills a student may have developed in school.
These are the things that we never hear about or see when the media publish WASL scores and we begin to look at schools and students as numbers.
Many of us have probably done poorly on a test once or twice. It happens. We didn't study, we were not feeling well, maybe there was a bad situation at home that morning about which we could not stop thinking. Those results may or may not follow us.
What does follow us, what is part of us more than any test can ever be, is who we are. The same day we fail a test we might perform a selfless act, or bring someone else joy, or help make the environment better for everyone. Don't these kind of things matter too?
We can't rebuff the whole student as a person. What if there were standards for honesty, caring, responsibility, or respect? How many of our lawmakers would meet them? I know many students who would. There will always be tests, but we shouldn't forget that students are more than a test score.
Michael Galligan
Seattle
