Standardized testing fatally flawed, should be scrapped
In the summer of 2003, I moved with my family from Michigan to Hamilton. For me it was a homecoming. After 18 years away from my hometown, seven in the U.S., it seemed like the right time. The political climate post 9/11 was noticeably tense, so my ex-wife jumped at a career enhancing opportunity and we left.
One of the advantages, or so I thought, was leaving behind a fraught public education environment. My kids were enrolled in the local public school. They were managing just fine, but it was not easy to avoid getting drawn into conversations with neighbours, family and co-workers, sometimes heated, over political positions affecting education. Where did I stand, I was sometimes asked, on charter schools, millage rates, parental choice or standardized tests.
I assumed we were leaving much of this behind when we arrived in Hamilton and enrolled our two boys in grades 2 and 5 respectively. So imagine my surprise when, the following academic year, I learned they were both required to take Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office standardized test. (EQAO)
My wife and I discussed the matter and we decided to withdraw our younger son from the process. We felt the added stress of the test, and the futility of the entire exercise were not in keeping with our family’s educational goals. Namely: the instillation of a love of learning, and the nurturing of innate curiosity. We asked our older son about it and he simply shrugged and said it was no big deal. So he took it.
Almost 20 years later, with my kids long gone from the system, I read with a mixture of bemusement and frustration of the EQAO results in The Spectator last week. The story reported on the usual combination of self congratulatory back slapping and hand-wringing from superintendents of both boards. What was most surprising however, is that the results should have surprised no one. And that’s because the notion of standardized testing is fatally flawed from the start and should be scrapped in Ontario.
In a 1999 book entitled “The Schools Our Children Deserve,” American writer Alfie Kohn excoriates standardized tests, arguing boards ruin schools in an all out race to raise test scores. It’s a thoughtful, comprehensive case against initiatives such as EQAO. Kohn notes how these tests fail to measure “initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, effort, irony, judgment, commitment, nuance, good will, ethical reflection.” All characteristics, one hopes, valued in our society. Additionally, he identifies how closely results are linked to family income. Rather than run the tests, he facetiously suggests asking students, “How much money does your mom make …?”
Clearly HWDSB superintendent Bill Torrens knows this. In The Spectator story, he observes how “in lower-income communities, insecure housing and poor nutrition can affect learning.” Ya think? In a followup story, Adelaide Hoodless school, identified as being from a low income neighbourhood, was praised for defying expectations with Grade 6 students scoring at grade level in writing.
These examples indicate that education administrators know the results going in, yet they persist in subjecting their students to this worthless venture year after year. And when the results come out, what do we do? We double down on programs that have not worked. We offer tutors, coaches and extra math supports for students as young as kindergartners. Former school board member Judith Bishop suggests there’s been “little change or improvement” since 2008.
I realize it’s way beyond the purview of the HWDSB or even the provincial Ministry of Education, but it seems to me we should be working to reduce wealth and income inequality more generally rather than engaging in this fruitless endeavour every spring. Only then will we see better academic outcomes across the board, most especially for students from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.