As recently stated, it’s a good idea for Mississippi to study whether it is going overboard on testing, especially at the district level where some schools make their teachers and students do too much preparation before the tests that count are given.
Jeff Amy of The Associated Press, however, has injected a troubling thought about the testing task force recently created by the Mississippi Department of Education.
It could be used not only to reduce how much district testing goes on but also to de-emphasize the state tests, too.
That would be a huge mistake.
If Mississippi has made any progress in raising the academic level of its students, as some reports have suggested, it’s because the state’s teachers and administrators have been held more accountable for how much their students know.
You can forget about using report cards to provide that measurement. The standards and expectations between schools and classrooms is so different, and grade inflation so bad, that a student’s promotion to the next grade or a student’s grade point average is completely unreliable as a gauge.
Mississippi has already watered-down high-stakes testing for high-school students, most of whom previously had to pass four state-directed subject-area tests in order to receive a diploma. Now there are several easier alternatives for those who couldn’t pass all the tests.
Even that dilution of standards, though, isn’t good enough for some test critics. They want to stop judging students’ academic prowess at all based on standardized test results.
That would be a guaranteed path for mediocrity, for even more remediation in college, and ultimately for crushed spirits of lots of high-school graduates. A diploma that’s worthless catches up eventually with the recipients, either because they fail in college or in the workplace.
The only reason for students to fear a standardized test is if their formal education from kindergarten through 12th grade didn’t equip them with reasonably proficient reading, writing, math and critical thinking skills. If anything, the students should welcome being tested because it helps keep those responsible for educating them from getting away with classroom malpractice.
