Testing for Intelligence?

In my opinion, accountability is the only positive aspect of the current standardized testing requirements.  When I was in high school, before NCLB was passed, I had a few good teachers, but they were the exception.  I had several teachers that would regularly show movies in the classroom instead of teaching because they were either too burnt out or lazy to teach.  I also had some teachers that were well-intentioned, but they had no control over the classroom so they spent most of their time dealing with discipline problems.  In both cases, the students were the ones that paid the price because these teachers were not being held accountable.

Obviously, standardized testing does not currently contribute to viewing children holistically since reading and math are the only areas that are emphasized. Standardized testing should include other areas besides reading and math (and sometime Science) because every child is intelligent in their own way.  I think that if children have to be tested, that the tests should include the multiple intelligences because it will give educators more insight into the child’s strengths.  Furthermore, it may prevent damaging a child’s self-esteem if they are not good in math and/or reading and it would enable the child to understand where they excel.  I do hope that changes will be made to the current system of standardized testing because I have seen how much stress it causes both teachers and students.  As Barrier-Ferreira (2008) stated, “because the stakes have reached disproportionate levels, educators are often forced to abandon all things unrelated to the test and consequently lose sight of what is important: the whole child” (p. 139).

I chose to research how children are assessed in Scotland.  Children are assessed quite differently in Scotland, than they are in the United States.  They use assessments instead of standardized testing and they are not assessed every year.  They follow are program called “Building the Curriculum 5” and children are assessed periodically and when transitioning from one school level to another.  Furthermore, the focus is not primarily on reading and math.  According to the document Building the Curriculum 5: A Framework for Assessment (2011), the purpose of the assessment is the following:

To ensure children and young people are making progress across all aspects of planned learning, assessment will place a greater emphasis on literacy and numeracy across the curriculum, health and well-being, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and higher order skills, including creativity (The Scottish Government, 2011, p. 7).

It appears to me that Scotland uses a more holistic approach than the United States.

References

Barrier-Ferreira, J. (2008). Producing commodities or educating children? Nurturing the personal growth of students in the face of standardized testing. The Clearing House, 81(3), 138-140.

The Scottish Government, Edinburgh (2011). Building the curriculum 5: A framework for assessment. Retrieved from http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/BtC5Framework_tcm4-653230.pdf