Champions of standardized testing change their tunes

Our news & views

March 25, 2010

A former architect of school reform in Ontario and a former undersecretary of education under George Bush are among those warning that current education policies are driving us in the wrong direction.

Andy Hargreaves, formerly of OISE, and American education historian Dr. Diane Ravitch have both raised concerns that a focus on test scores and narrow achievement goals has resulted in students who are less educated in history, literature, geography, the arts, civics, foreign  Languages, physical education and even in science.

Both Hargreaves and Ravitch agree that this narrow focus does little to improve the lives of children, and little to prepare students for their 21st century world. In a UNICEF survey of child well-being, the United States and the United Kingdom rank dead last. Both countries have focused their education policies primarily on test score targets, increased accountability measures and more school choice. (Watch an interview with Diane Ravitch on the Daily Show.) Canada ranks 12th out of 21.

The United States, under President Obama, is now moving even farther into standardization. There are now federal standards for reading, writing and math and there is a new Race to the Top fund. To access the billions of dollars in the fund, states must remove restrictions on the number of privately managed charter schools receiving public dollars and they must use test results to evaluate teachers.

Dean of Rotman School calls for greater focus on social intelligence

Even business leaders are now raising concerns about government policy that drives schools to concentrate on math and reading scores, while leaving out broader education. At a recent conference, Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management, said it is young people’s social intelligence skills that will allow them to succeed in the 21st century. He says we should be looking at ways to ensure we graduate students who are confident, motivated, capable of collaborating and using deductive reasoning, and who have great oral and writing skills.

Testing in Ontario

In Ontario, about two-thirds of kids get about a “B” in reading, writing and math tests: because that’s what the government standard is — a “B.”

But it’s possible to look at EQAO scores a different way. Here are the outcomes for the percentage of students scoring approximately “C” (Level 2) or better on EQAO tests:

• Grade 9 math: 86%
• Grade 3 Reading: 86%
• Grade 3 Writing: 96%
• Grade 3 Math: 93%
• Grade 6 Reading: 92%
• Grade 6 Writing: 95%
• Grade 6 Math: 89%

These overall scores have changed very little over the last five years, which again makes one wonder why we continue to test every single student.

Does Ontario need standardized testing?

In Finland, which consistently comes out on top in international education studies, there is no standardized testing.

Scotland has no standardized testing, Wales has abolished testing before age 14, and Northern Ireland is preparing to get rid of the standardized tests for students at age 11.

In England, the school principals and teachers have voted to boycott standardized tests for 11-year-olds. The government has already abolished testing 14-year-olds and has limited the testing for 7-year-olds.

In England and in the United States, students are spending more time on math, reading and writing and less time on the arts or the social sciences, but there is little evidence that this drive is actually improving students’ education. It may be possible to increase test scores (though in England, even those have plateaued), but the question remains, Are the trade-offs worth it?