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| The Global Freedom Institute |
| American Secondary Education: How do we evaluate it? There has been a lot of political talk this year and most years about the quality of the education in schools. Everyone has a fix for it, yet it never seems to get fixed enough so that it isn�t an election year issue every election. Why is that? Some would say because of the solutions that have been implemented are actually failures. Others would say it is because we have not implemented their solution. Could it be that we have not actually diagnosed the problem? One would think policy makers had done that prior to advancing policy. Of course there are many problems. Why doesn�t anyone question how we determine if our schools are successes or failures? How do we evaluate schools? Currently, schools are largely evaluated by the state and federal government based on the student�s scores on a test. There is a National test and usually a state test. This is what created the controversy in Texas prior to the election. The national test scores in Texas were not great against other states on the same test. However, the state test showed huge improvements in areas. Why the difference and which one do we believe to be true? One Rand study explained, that teachers had their pay based on the state test, so they tended to teach how to take the state test and the information on it. While the state test questions were different every year, the questions were available for people to find patterns, such as topics, focus of questions, types of questions, and everything that you might find in an SAT preparation book. While Rand used a small sample and admits shortcomings in the study, it also points to a possible explanation of the difference in test results. It also points to a potential flaw in evaluation based totally on one test. If teachers are teaching a test, are they teaching the subject matter? In one sense, yes. They would be teaching what should be known to show the students are learning the subject, according to one test. In another sense, no. Part of teaching is helping students see multiple views and teaching them to think for themselves, not just memorize facts. While facts are important, what is a fact is subjective and considering the dissemination of information in today�s world, finding the information may be as important as knowing the information. Evaluating the information is probably more important, as a skill, than memorizing some information. In other words, teaching a test may completely ignore the other lessons of education. Does this mean no more tests? No. There must be a means of evaluation, and one test may be part of the process, however, it should not be the sole means of evaluation. What are the goals of educators? Some would argue to keep their jobs. On a more serious note, it should be to help students learn not only the information they teach, but how to evaluate it, regardless of perspective. In other words, when teaching American history, some contend that Europeans murdered millions of Native Americans. Others contend that any deaths were either provoked by Native Americans or accidental. Such is the case with small pox and blankets in American history. Some say it was deliberate and others say it was incidental. Is it really the job of the teachers to decide that or should it be the job to teach the students to research, read, and critically evaluate the evidence? Consider today�s economy in America. While there is still a considerable service sector, there is an ever growing information economy. This is based on computers, the internet and many software programs. It also creates the sale of many goods over the internet. What may be an even larger industry, is the manipulation of that information. Public relations and communication managers may, in fact, be the most important asset to many companies and organizations. In order to deal with those fields, it may be more important to have critical thinking skills and the ability to find information, than to have that information memorized and find out it is obsolete one month later. Even to be a retail manager, an individual would be better off with critical thinking skills to assess a given situation and to apply the company�s rules and mission to the situation than to memorize a non-flexible rule in an ever flexible business reality. With an economy that is making a bachelor�s degree as important as a high school diploma was 50 years ago, college is a reality that most individuals that are successful economically will have to go through. Thus, part of the job of the teachers must be to prepare students for college as much as to help them graduate high school. This begs the question, if we are preparing them for college, why aren�t we ensuring they get to college? Part of that answer lies in the educational problems in America, which is beyond the scope of this article. However, if we have standardized testing now, why not include the SAT/ACT tests that have proven to generally predict college success in secondary education as an evaluation standard? If they will need a four-year degree, why not see if our school systems are succeeding in preparing America�s children for college? One of the added benefits of giving the SAT/ACT tests in school would be having that information available for guidance counselors who can help guide students to colleges that may best suit their needs. 1 2 3 |
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