Don't like tests? Here's what you might need!
Thinking this might be the time to put Sherlock Holmes aside for a little while, I recently read the book called, The Global Achievement Gap. I am totally dropping Sherlock Holmes; I just think saving the some stories for the future is probably better.
Anyways, this new book is not a novel, which is usually not my taste. But it has some very interesting ideas in it and they fit my identity, a 12th grade high school student, very well. Since it is a non-fiction, I am going straight to the point as well.
At the very beginning, the author, Tony Wagner, points out that instead of memorizing dates of historical events, grammars, and formulas, students in modern education should be tested on the following "Seven Survival Skills":
1. Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
2. Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence
3. Agility and Adaptability
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information
7. Curiosity and Imagination
Just from reading this, I have sense a revolutionary change in the idea of current standardized testing system. Students go through middle and high school education with countless law-required tests. As a result, schools and teacher are told to teach just what's on the test. Eventually, this phenomena undermines the accountability of the testing system. Ever since the No Child Left Behind policy in 2002, American education quality is generally considered worse.
Wagner offers an potential alternative for the situation. He recommends the College and Work Readiness Assessment, or CWRA. This new test is used in a number of very prestigious private schools for testing ALL of the student. The main project of inventing new assessment, the Collegiate Learning Assessment, or the CLA, has a basic "performance assessment", which requires students to demonstrate their reasoning, problem-solving, and writing skills in a 90 minutes test. The new program is "challenging, and the results from the test tell us a great deal about the Seven Survival Skills." It's price is also less than half the cost of an AP exam, at about $40 per student.
Even though assessments such as performance-based or portfolio-based have great advantages and promises towards a more applicable future education need, I think there are still some concerns within this process. For example, the current standardized tests are easily unified national wide, making enrollment and measurement for schools and colleges more convenient. But how can assessments such as the above two be easily adapted and used in the nation? It will be a great task to accomplish since different states have assorted regulations on testing. Secondly, performance-based and portfolio based assessments are more complicated grading-wise. Department departments have to hire and train more experts or test officials just to grade the assessments. How can a test that requires so much human work cost less than a computer graded test?
Nonetheless, I still believe the current testing policies and the test itself need a change and alternatives such as CWRA has real potential to invent a new and unprecedented form of standardized tests. But there are definitely room for improvement in the present progress.
