The insane problem of US standardized testing | Rosalind Wiseman | Big Think

The insane problem of US standardized testing | Rosalind Wiseman | Big Think
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When it comes to elements of the US education system that simply don't work, there is one controversial topic that educators always come back to: standardized testing.

For Rosalind Wiseman, best-selling author and founder of Cultures of Dignity, using standardized tests as the ultimate barometer of a student's worth (and of the quality of education provided by an institution), and perpetuating that system for profit, is not only problematic and inaccurate, it is "criminal" and "irresponsible."

The system is broken. For things to change, institutions and educators have to be willing to step out of their comfort zone to try something new. They must also remember that education practices should revolve around what's best for learners, not what's best for any given industry.
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ROSALIND WISEMAN:

Rosalind Wiseman is the founder of Cultures of Dignity, an organization that shifts the way communities think about our physical and emotional well-being by working in close partnership with the experts of those communities—young people, educators, policy makers, and business and political leaders. She is an international speaker, a multiple New York Times best-selling author, and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, Washington Post and other esteemed publications.
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TRANSCRIPT:

ROSALIND WISEMAN: When you're working with young people and if you're passionate about working with young people and you have a purpose about working with young people which I do, and you get a lot of feedback from young people about their lived experience which I do, it tends to make you pretty annoyed sometimes at the way in which the educational system is directed at young people. And one of those things is about assessment because if we truly, truly – and this is what we do. It's not if, we do. We have young people in high school work and work and work for four years and we sit them down in a chair and we have them do exams that are absolutely tied to an institution that's making tremendous amounts of money off of those evaluations. Increasing people's anxiety disproportionately makes it incredibly difficult for young people to actually figure out what they want to do, why they want to do it, why are they in school anyway. Young people are constantly saying to me why am I learning the things that I'm learning. I don't see the application for it.

That's actually not being an immature, bratty kid. That's actually being a really wanting to be an engaged learner and having every right to say why am I learning this. And usually the response is because they're going to be taking this test that is going to evaluate and assess their worth and value. That is insane. And that is what we do. And so for us to assess young people in this way is, I think, actually criminal. Because what we're doing is we're putting the institutions who are making money off of these tests focusing that on children and taking away their dignity and taking away their sense of purpose and taking away their sense of value beyond being able to do well on a test. That to me is just so irresponsible and we do it and parents buy into it and we don't challenge it. And I'm really hoping that through this process and this chaotic experience that we're having right now that we realize the insanity of that system. So if we can do that then we might get to a place of what assessment could really be which is a collaboration between the educator and the student.

Not only is the student being assessed on things that they can decide with the teacher or with the institution together, but that also the institution is assessed through the process as well. When we get to that place we have gotten to a place where education matters to young people.

But I also think for teachers – and I'll speak for myself, that we get so used to doing things that we think works because we're comfortable with it and we don't want to change something that will make us uncomfortable because we have to teach something new in a different way. I think that's really what was happening. So it was an experience of okay, I have to actually practice what I preach. I have to listen to them and this is hard but I have to do it anyway.