The Lies of Education

I hate to admit it but it took me almost two years to realize the lie that my state department of education is telling.

I am an educator.   I like to think that I am more than capable of thinking for myself.  Most of the time I can see the benefits of a majority of our policies.

But I call BULL on this!!!

We were told at the district level that our students would take all high stakes tests on the computer because those who are in a high pay grade than me believed the students would do better.  Just because students can navigate a cell phone better than Bill Gates doesn't mean they can operate the dinosaur we call the computer.  The computer has a thing called a keyboard and a mouse.  The students can't use their fingers to scroll through the test.

I spend 8 and 1/2 months teaching content and test-taking strategies...which are completely useless on the computer.  I teach the students to underline, circle, highlight, cross out, draw lines, and such on the test to simplify the question, to relate answer choices to the question, and whatnot.

If the district or state personnel would bother to ask the students what the students wanted, the high paid experts would quickly find that the students want an ol'fashioned pencil/paper test.  They feel more comfortable bubbling in circles.  Besides, it's not like when they hit "submit" at the end of the test, they get their results.  It still takes the same about of time to get the results back because of validation issues.

But it hit me last night.  Computer tests are NOT about making the students' lives better, easier, or more comfortable.  It's about the school personnel.  If the tests are on the computer, then there are no test booklets, no answer sheets, no scratch paper, and such that need to be kept secure all the time.  There's less of a chance of someone looking at something they shouldn't.  It's all about TEST SECURITY not about student ACHIEVEMENT!!!!!!!

And here, I thought these people actually cared about the students we are paid to serve.  Sometimes I am disgusted by the educational system that I love so much.