July 5, 2002
AIMing for literacy
Michael Tapia�s column, �AIMS test not a good predictor of success,� of June 26, objecting to the expense of the AIMS test based upon various factors, is flawed.
First, he assumes the purpose of the test is predict success in the outside world based upon performance on this test. That assumption is incorrect.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the student has learned certain material necessary to success, and a test should be issued to gauge whether those skills have been learned.
Mr. Tapia cites several examples of men who succeeded despite having performed poorly in school. However, none of them could have succeeded without the necessary skills of literacy and mathemtics.
The other legitimate areas of study � art, music and the social sciences � are not fundamental and necessary to success. English and math are, and are necessary to success in other fields as well. Having a social sciences degree myself (B.S., political science, NAU, 1996), I can state with some authority that one can neither read nor understand John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau or Friederich Nietzsche with a basic (i.e., limited) reading ability.
It stands to reason one should not be permitted to graduate � and be awarded a diploma � if the necessary literary and mathematical skills have not been obtained, and a test is the most basic way to make that determination.
The existing AIMS test may or may not be the best test to use, but we had to start with something. We must stop graduating students from high school who cannot read. Without literacy, there can be no success.
(Historical notes: The AIMS test was passed a couple years ago as a requirement to graduate from high school in Arizona, and has been a storm of controversy ever since. Some have objected to the test based upon expense � the Stanford 9 can be used for the same purpose. Some object to the content of the test � the Superintendent of Public Instruction at the time had trouble with it, and it had its share of flaws. Some don�t think a test should be required to graduate, as did the writer of the letter to which my letter responds � that person, Mr. Tapia, will be a senior at Dobson High School, 1 mile from my home, in the coming school year.)