Lancaster Catholic, as a parochial school, is exempt from the standards movement. Though administrators have the students take one standardized test to gauge their progress, the curriculum is overall fairly free from the grips of the standardized test world.
It was a wonderful feeling to have, and I can't help but wonder why we still subject public school students to these awful tests. I've always believed that standardized tests (which perhaps had good intentions) are a hindrance to our education system in numerous ways. Students are deprived opportunities for creativity; we're setting our kids up for failure, etc. Now, this article adds a new wrinkle to it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/when-an-adult-took-standardized-tests-forced-on-kids/2011/12/05/gIQApTDuUO_blog.html#pagebreak
In this article, a highly successful school superintendent (with multiple degrees!) earns a 62% on the reading section of the standardized test and only answers 10 out of 60 math questions correctly. He even goes on to say that were he subjected to these tests during his schooling, he would have lost confidence in himself and not gone on to become as successful as he has. He says that standardized tests are "education by humiliation."
Never had I considered the emotional aspect of standardized tests. Our secondary students have their whole lives ahead of them, and a million opportunities and people to tell them they won't succeed. Why should we, as part of the school system, join those millions telling our kids they won't succeed?
I'd love to see a class of seniors walk out of their high school confident that they can do anything they set their minds to accomplish. With standardized tests, I'm not so sure.
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