Educational Issues

» Irene Taylor - Testing!

Very interesting discussion on the importance of testing, GPA, and graduation honors! I agree that there has been a huge importance placed on testing and grades, and in many cases to the detriment of education.

In the last years before I retired, our state instituted standardized state-wide tests for 4th graders. We spent most of the year preparing for the test! Nothing more! We had a principal who was relentless and we had to devote what I considered to be an inordinate amount of time to that one test!

Any actual learning or fun was squeezed in when there was time - and these were only 4th graders! I can only imagine the pressures on older students, and I can understand why some, in a society that does put great weight on GPA and class rank, might opt to take an easier way out.

In our area, some schools do name the "top ten" students, but they also have a valedictorian, so it does seem that progress is going to be slow.

I think that it would be a good thing if some of this test-oriented-ness would go by the wayside, but I fear that as long as teachers are pressured by administration, who is pressured by school boards, who have state and federal guidelines to meet, we will continue to have this situation.

Irene