Testing and Intelligence

Children don't get smarter because you test them more. Standardized testing, unless used by the teacher as a diagnostic tool to help guide teaching and learning, could be a waste of time. I understand the desire to hold teachers and schools accountable for certain aspects of "learning" and that there is a lot of government money tied up in it, but here's a Montessori brainwave: what if the child is given the opportunity to show what he knows when he is ready to show that he knows it? In essence, give the test when the child is ready to show mastery of those skills.

There was an article in my local free self-congratulating magazine that attributes steadily climbing test scores to the steadily climbing smartness of the kids in the local school district. Not only are the students not actually getting smarter (except for the normal development that you would expect to see from year to year from a child in school), but there is nothing that he or anyone else can do speed up childhood brain development. They are just getting better at taking the tests.

Some number of years ago, some tests were changed. The baseline data that was collected showed that students did okay. But the test format stayed similar the next year and the teachers knew what to expect. The teachers knew how to better prepare. The teachers, whether they meant to or not, began to teach to the test. Who wouldn't? I would want my students to do well if it meant I could win some money for my school (or myself for that matter because you know the only way to get teachers to do a good job is to pay them extra for good test scores, right?!).

So, obviously, as time goes on, the kids get "smarter" at taking the test. Does that mean that the test is actually measuring intelligence or academic success? I argue that it measures how well the students (and teachers) have learned how to take a test.

Is this useful? Well, yes and no. Here's the good part-- test taking is a life skill. Students need to learn how to do it. Being good at taking tests is a good thing. Learning how to navigate bubble sheets, multiple choice questions and essay responses is something everyone needs to know. That said, why does someone out there think it is necessary to collect all this data at frequent intervals and not give the information back to the teachers in a timely fashion so they can use the data to teach? I'm not saying I have a solution for accountability, but I am saying that teachers should focus on testing as a life skill and move onto more important matters like teaching and learning at each child's own level.

Wouldn't it be so weird to have an entire class on the same chapter at the same time every year? Montessori knew that learning in groups can be useful, but that each child benefits most from working at his own pace. I'm pretty sure most anyone can see that this is true. So then why are they all tested at the same time? Is it such a stretch to say that testing should also be at a child's own pace? It's a disconnect between "learning" and learning that drives me mad!

This post was written with absolutely no consultation to any scholarly literature whatsoever.