The "Failures" of Standardized Testing

I heard a story today about an eight year old “little” boy. When he was picked up from school, he was asked, “How was your day?” His reply, “I am a failure. I scored 203 on the NWEA test and I was supposed to score 220.”

With all of my heart and being, I hope that comment gives pause for reflection and an “are you kidding me?” Why in the world should a little boy have to deal with that kind of pressure? Why in the world should anyone have to deal with that kind of test taking pressure? When visiting colleges with my younger son years ago, a parent at the MSU meeting asked, “How does the MEAP test influence my child’s admittance to the University.” Answer, “It doesn’t.”

I have written before in my article “Love of Learning Alive in Grosse Pointe” that I believe test scores have their place as a standardized measure, but they are not the end all and be all of predicting a child’s success. Maybe we need to look at how testing is presented to our students; maybe no little boy or girl should feel like a failure because of a test score.

My son, my daughter-in-law, myself, and a host of other very successful people did not score well on standardized tests. It is one measure, it measures only one intelligence, and it appears to foster negative feelings of failure. I am thankful that through tutoring students I have the opportunity to break the barrier of test scores. Resilience, self-esteem, and hard work can beat a test score any day.

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