Standardized tests…….allowing tracking?
I’ve always been anti-standardized tests, which is funny, considering I’ve always scored relatively high on them. After reading the article:
The Detracking Movement
I’ve come to the realization that Standardized Tests are kind of like an enabler for tracking. Before you write me off as just another standardized nay-sayer hear me out. The article says:
The advent of the IQ test and standardized achievement tests accelerated this trend by making the sorting process more apparently scientific.
This thought did not occur to me before I read this article. Think about it for a second though. When these “tracked” students get to their Junior year and are forced to take the MME test, it is kind of like walking into battle without any ammunition. They are ill-prepared, because they’ve been unchallenged through most of highschool in lower-standards type of classes, and they do not fully comprehend the kind of issues that the MME test resolves. Take it a step further back, and it is things like the MEAP in 8th grade and before that puts these students in the tracked classes in highschool. So look at the entire step by step process:
A) Student struggles
B) Student takes test on material that they are already struggling with
C) Student gets placed in low tracked classes because they did not understand that material in the first place
D) Student takes classes, does well but is not challenged so they think that everything is honky-dorey now
E) Student takes MME and struggles because the issues in A were never resolved
F) Student does not get into college because of their score and are then “tracked” in their adult life by engaging in a job that is below their talent level and will never rise above the pay grade they could’ve gotten with their degree
In the end, just because of one dumb test, the student is railed into an economic wall. In reality, the circle will continue because their demanding job of 60 hours a week to make ends meet means they don’t get to read to little junior or little sally, so the circle repeats itself again for the littles. I know that seems kinda ranty, but really it is a cycle that needs to stop.
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