Educational testing needs repair

By Marty Meyer-Gad Mankato

Apr 16, 2021

Let’s fix our educational infrastructure.

Standardized testing is discriminatory. The expectation that every student conforms to a dictated standard goes against the ideals of democracy. In addition, years of breathing polluted air, drinking water from lead-lined pipes and eating pesticide-laced food compromises child development.

Food and medical insecurities have striated our society. Add to the mix English as a second language students and those with known learning disabilities. The economically secure student easily rises to the top, while the pool of special needs students grows, as school budgets shrink.

How does a color blind kindergartener function? Why isn’t the student with dyscalculia allowed time table charts for classwork and tests? Do decaying roads deserve more specialized attention than students?

Be fair. Replace standardized testing with individualized testing. Identify a child’s learning style so the tester reads to the aural learner. The tactile learner manipulates some test components. Retesting measures the individual’s growth, no comparison with others.

Not possible, too labor intensive? How else do we guarantee every child succeeds in school and life? Moving students through grades without demanding the achievement of necessary skills, cheats our future society.

To reduce government spending, school budgets are cut and re-cut. Public infrastructure band-aides include: fusing connector plates to decaying bridges, shovelling asphalt into potholes, stocking sandbags for the annual floods, hoping dreamers continue their service.

Many will chafe at the cost of the American Rescue Plan, preferring to patch things and let their grandkids and great-grandkids fix them. So many need work, so much needs fixing. Now is the time for radical investment in America’s future.

But let’s not forget our children.

Marty Meyer-Gad

Mankato

Note: The author Mary Meyer-Gad is an ordained Catholic Priest. We certainly share her views on how children should be tested in the future.