THE ONES WHO TEACH
"...Only 20 percent [of teachers]...see the college-admission tests as a fair measure of the work their students have done." (David Coleman, President of College Board).
Educators at both the high school and higher education levels are important leaders who not only teach, but influence what students learn in the process. Instructors are the backbone to the educational system and in recent times, they have all felt the increased amount of stress the system has placed upon them.
Standardized tests have become the model indicator used to measure and ‘rate’ both high schools and universities, but of more particular focus are the scores which students at a specific school receive. The results therefore act as a gauge to whether certain students are more intelligent than others. Teachers at the high school level have fallen under this curse of producing students who receive high scores in order to make their school or county appear better. This is completed by ‘teaching to the test’, in which teachers educate to what they believe will be on tests and not teaching to achieve success and true knowledge. This impacts what students learn and therefore what they can apply in the world at large. A movement in education has begun by aligning more to what is taught in the classroom by focusing on intellectual growth of students rather than preparation for standardized tests.
Teachers at the high school level are able to aid in this movement towards successful learning and information retaining, but they are also accurately able to assess a student’s intellectual potential. Educators may gauge a student’s intellectual levels through other means which take the variety of writing various assignments along with engagement in the classroom and in the community. Personal interactions allow teachers to assess if one’s test scores align with their other abilities in deciding if they are well-fitted to particular institutions. High school educators provide the ‘balance’ in a student’s environment and a majority of them are hopeful for a move towards assessing students less on their academic abilities and more on their ‘well-roundedness’ especially with the trend towards test-optional colleges.
On the other hand, once students begin completing college level assignments, professors are then able to assess a student’s progress and ability to complete ‘harder’ work. While these educators don’t get as much one-on-one contact as compared to that at the high school level, they are able to measure a student’s abilities and determine if their admittance decision was an accurate reflection of their academic skills. Those at the higher education level, especially in schools moving towards test-optional or no test requirements feel more inclined to survey a variety of student attributes instead of focusing mainly on their intelligence levels.
Students bring both variety and diversity to college campuses, however oftentimes these factors aren't always equally weighed in the college admissions process. Solving this dilemma, educators at both the high school and higher education levels are able to accurately assess students’ abilities in and out of the classroom. As a whole this group feels the current trend (see in increased amounts of test-optional and no-test required schools) has opened up the playing field to consider an increased variety of students who aren't being evaluated solely on scores which they receive on standardized tests.
Banner Photo courtesy of Weebly.
Opening Quote courtesy of Tamar Lewin from The New York Times. "A New SAT Aims to Realign With Schoolwork." (5 Mar. 2014).
Video courtesy of Dan Rather Reports (YouTube).
Opening Quote courtesy of Tamar Lewin from The New York Times. "A New SAT Aims to Realign With Schoolwork." (5 Mar. 2014).
Video courtesy of Dan Rather Reports (YouTube).