Education in the Age of Measurement
Laarni Gonzales Ingal
There is a wide acceptance on the definition of measurement – that is the act of comparing an unknown quantity with a given standard. It is an act as it is something done, and a person has to do it, and one has to deal with something unknown and something that is accepted as a standard. Aside from that, social conventions have become so definitive as to what is an acceptable or good measurement. And in Education, no teacher can escape this process of measurement.
In the classroom, everything our students do can be measured – behavior, grades, frequency of absence, tardiness, and other things. Almost everything is assigned with a value or number, and students are judged based on what they achieved. However, the question is, “Are these measurements good enough?”
The past decades saw the rise of “educational measurement” or the measurement of “outcomes”. The presence of measurement practices paved the way for the development or creation of international indices, standards and even national policies. This even goes way down to the local setting where these measurement practices are used full-swing. In a quick way, this rise saw the birth of the term “gold standard” in education.
For example, in the Philippines, we have the Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program, or DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015. The mentioned policy tells the manners and means by which students’ outcomes are gauged. For instance, in Science, the policy tells that in a quarter, the weight for written work is 40%, the weight for performance task is 40%, and the remaining 20% is for the quarter exam. The weight of the factors to consider would vary for other subjects. This only shows the education sector’s “penchant for measurement”.
With the things that they are right now, one can weed out the poor performing or best performing students easily, and rank them. Whether we like it or not, what happens is that teachers show their most pleasant side among those who get the higher grades, and those who are below the passing mark are frowned upon, not only in the classroom, but by those who see the report cards filled with red marks. Is this really what educational measurement is? To measure faults and highlight perfection?
Educational measurement had been abused at some point, had been marred with subjectivity, and brought issues along with it. Some students have cheated their way on exams because they wanted to get passing remarks fearing the judgment of their teachers, peers, and families. Some students suffered anxiety and depression due to not meeting up with the expectations of having good or even passing grades. Some students even felt pressured or degraded when they have been labeled the “bobo of the batch” because their grades fall deep below the ground. There had also been issues on teachers who manipulate grades to change ranks – that is, they give higher marks to students they are more comfortable with.
The advent of educational measurement culture is not that bad either. It has created a way by which teachers may objectively measure whether or not expected pre-selected outcomes have been met. It has also provided numbers, figures or statistics on where we currently stand at, or what our learners have known and not yet known. It also seems that good results in educational measurements have become motivators for some students.
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The author is Teacher III at San Miguel Elementary School, Magalang North
District