Monday, January 28, 2013

Response to Seattle Boycott


Tests are important and play a huge role in ones pathway to success; however, its excess and not appropriate use, as, for instance, the implementation of the MAP Test- an exam that does not have a formal "grading structure" and only serve as a base for teachers to evaluate students upon ones' learning in many International schools as well as Americans- can be of no use and a sharp rock on ones' pavement.



As students rush through the test and compete with one another to try to finish the computer-based exam first, insipid and not expected grades reach teachers and give out some frustration. Why are schools implementing a test that is not valuing a student's learning profile? What is exactly the point of maintaining an exam like that? I look out for teachers in schools, such as the three in Seattle, who have drawn a line and refused to give out their students this test in particular; schools that do not stay quiet and raise their voices to discuss and to try to abolish this flawed test. Flawed not only due to the fact that these tests overhaul the financial section behind the computer screen, but also due to how this test does not reflect a student's learning profile and, instead, a teacher's success. In addition, the financial support the district is receiving by each school's participation is an absurd. The real factor taken in consideration is the deliverance of these tests and obviously, the final reward: money; but were do the students come in?

As the Seattle teachers exclaimed. "Our kids will need both traditional academic abilities and innovative critical-thinking skills to solve these real problems. If we inundate our students with standardized testing year-round, these larger lessons are lost."


Here is a video showing the Seattle teachers' refusal to administer the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)  on a rally Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013:


"More importantly, however, students are not benefiting from these tests. In fact, they [tests] are hurting many of our students, and our most fragile populations; as well as those students who nee more class time and not less class time."

"Our destination is a destination of creativity; our destination is a destination of critical thinking."


Why not create and Academic Portfolio which shows all the achievements made by each individual? The majority of the teachers tend to use tests as a form of evaluation - assessing student's knowledge. However, the inputs of unnecessary and "inappropriate" tests are only for worse, since no attention is given for its completion at all - students rush and do not even read the question, as related before. Because undergraduates and learners are loaded with tests, I believe the best way to "prevent these situations" [the implementation of unnecessary exams] is by offering a new source of assessing one's growth: the creation of Academic Portfolios. Students will then be part of the deal.




"It is important to use test results, but it's also important that they not become your oxygen." (HUNTER, Pat)

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