Standardized testing is not helping American students

Brooke Frenkel / Contributing Writer

opinion@fiusm.com

It is no secret that the ethnocentric American public school system has been struggling to keep up in academics with other developed countries around the world. Every three years since 2000, the Program for International Student Assessment administers a standardized test to 15-year-olds around the world. The test measures their proficiency in mathematics, reading and science. The most recent study was conducted in 2012 – and the results are less than admirable. According to the study, 26 percent of U.S. students scored below a level 2, the baseline of proficiency. The average science scores were slightly better, with the country ranking 23 overall, and our students ranked two points above the international average in reading. However, being one of the most powerful countries in the world should demand a superior education system, not an average one.

But what is perhaps most disconcerting is that Florida schools produced the lowest scores from “top students,” as well as the highest level of below-average proficiency in all three subjects.

In 2001, President George W. Bush implemented the No Child Left Behind Act, the purpose of which was to establish a nationwide assessment in public schools and to make learning a measurable statistic. However, reading and mathematics scores have flat-lined since the 1990s, accentuating the failure of the initiative. Rather than improve the education of our youth, the act has hindered both students and teachers by creating an environment that stresses the importance of passing standardized tests, without emphasizing teaching to facilitate actually learning the material.

According to the documentary Waiting on Superman, only 14 percent of students in Mississippi measured competently in math, and only 13 percent of students in our nation’s capital are proficient in reading.

Growing up, I attended seven different schools across the state of Florida. Halfway through my sophomore year, I moved from Northern Florida to Cape Coral. I spent six months sitting in a classroom, forced to take notes on material in math and science that I had already learned. This lack of uniformity was for me, a mere annoyance, but imagine if the roles were reversed. What if I were a student that was six months behind by fault of the school system? I would have two options: Fail the subjects or hire a tutor – if I had the available funds. What’s more, the school system would have only two options if I were not able to catch up, either hold me back a year or push me through the system.

Sadly, it is more often that I see students pushed forward because no one cared enough to speak up – and I have seen the effects of this neglect in my extended family.

According to research presented in Waiting on Superman, there are over two thousand high schools across the nation known as “dropout factories.” Students are funneled from poorly performing elementary and middle schools, only to arrive at a “dropout factory” high school with no expectations from faculty to succeed. Without a high school diploma, the options for making ends meet are limited. Many will end up in jail or prison at some point, facing a recidivism rate of 68 percent within the first three years of release. Waiting on Superman, points out that it costs the government $33,000 per year to house an inmate. Totaling $132,000 in just four years. In contrast, private schools cost an average of $8,300 a year. If we redesigned our education system, we could send each student to a private school, Kindergarten through 12th grade, for only $107,900. It is important for our government to acknowledge that the systems put into place thus far have been tried and tested but still continue to fail.

We cannot accept that our K-12 students are receiving an average education by international standards and a below average education by nation standards. We live in a world that is becoming more internationally connected by the second – if we want our youth to have a place in the future workforce it is pertinent that we fight for a better school system. The statistics do not lie, but yet our government has not been able to properly reform the system. In my opinion, it is not lack of resource but rather a lack of an innovative effort. And maybe, even deeper, it is an issue embedded within the capitalistic ethos of our government and its leaders.

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