Yes, using test scores from multiple-choice bubble in tests to determine how well our students are doing in school is dumb. In what part of our lives, would we use a bubble in test, given on one day of the year, to assess our own personal growth and the value of the people who support us?
For example, If my growth as a husband where determined by what I did yesterday; returned home from work late, didn’t take out the trash, left the dirty dishes in the sink, left my dirty socks on the floor in the living room … and a representative from the Department of Good Husband Education came to my door and asked me to fill in a bubble sheet on what I did – or didn’t do well that day – My wife, as the responsible adult in the house, would be in a lot of trouble.
She would be required write a Husband Intervention Plan where she would detail which of the five strategies - approved by the state - to use to help be with my problem. She would then place me on a targeted intervention program where I would endlessly rinse and place dishes in the dishwasher and practice taking out the trash twice each day. I wouldn’t be allowed to take up any creative activities or do anything else that would engage my creativity or curiosity of the world. I would be doomed to endless repetition and practice until the next year when the testing man came by. On that day, I could again hope that the bubbles I filled out where correct enough that I could attain the title of being “proficient’ and we could go on with our lives.
My wife would be told that she is a poor wife and that our house could be closed I didn’t improve. She would constantly be nagging me to improve in areas where I was found to be ‘not-yet –proficient’ and cease looking for ways to make our marriage more interesting and eventful because no matter what she’s not going anywhere - she has tenure
At the end of the year, she would probably become resigned to the tedium and constantly haranguing me about the trash and I would just drop out of our marriage. We would both be relieved when I just quit coming home each day.
I know this example sounds ridiculous. But is it really? Then answer this question for fifth graders in science and see what really happens:
* Plants and animals are composed of organic compounds. Which of the following are the common elements found in organic compounds?
A iron, oxygen, nickel, copper
B sodium, potassium, gold, hydrogen
C helium, neon, argon, krypton
D carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen
So, because you were unable to determine that the correct answer was D, and you missed several other questions, you are placed into a special science class where you learn other mundane facts until you take the test next year. You wouldn’t be able to perform more advanced experiments or anything else where you might be able to get excited about the subject or try to show what you know in other ways like showing the results of an experiment that you designed or performed.
In going to this class each day, you would be reminded that you are not as bright as your more studious classmates. So while they are preparing for a choir performance, you are stuck in a second science class because you now longer have an elective period. Therefore, you cannot participate in chorus. Even though everyone tells you have an amazing voice and ear for music, you weren’t able to fill in the right bubble often enough, on one day last year.
After awhile you decide that science is boring and never want to go near it again. Your missed a whole year of chorus and the friendships made by the group are beyond you now. The next year you miss one too many questions in English – even though it’s not your native language. (Does it really matter if you can identify a word in a sentence as an adjective, adverb or preposition?) So, you have to take two English classes the next year and can’t do chorus, again. You see the absurdity in this. However, you know that while you may not be great at taking these tests, you are not stupid. You decide there is no point in going to school – you drop out.
That is why that if we really want to become a nation that is really on top of the educational world, we need to dump the bubble test. It’s just dumb.
* (You can see a whole bank of these questions for each subject and each grade level at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/css05rtq.asp)
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