Testing Season!

Aahh....testing season. The smell of pencils in the air. The time of year when schools effectively shut down learning for 2 weeks straight so students can fill in little bubbles testing how well they can take tests.

And, really, no pressure to these kids. The standardized tests don't count for their grades, just their school's funding, their teacher's jobs, etc.

Now granted, there does need to be some method for assessing the progress that individual students are making, the efficacy of teacher methods, the strength of school programs, etc. But testing and testing students using A, B, C, D bubbles over and over again, doesn't prove anything other than some students are good at taking standardized tests, and others aren't.

Check out www.notonthetest.com to see a great music video by Tom Chapin that satirizes the standardized testing.

Lyrics
Not On The Test by John Forster & Tom Chapin © 2006
Limousine Music Co. & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

Go on to sleep now, third grader of mine.
The test is tomorrow but you'll do just fine.
It's reading and math, forget all the rest.
You don't need to know what is not on the test.

Each box that you mark on each test that you take,
Remember your teachers, their jobs are at stake.
Your score is their score, but don't get all stressed.
They'd never teach anything not on the test.

Your School Board is faced with no child left behind
With rules but no funding, they’re caught in a bind.
So music and art and the things you love best
Are not in your school ‘cause they’re not on the test.

Sleep, sleep, and as you progress
You’ll learn there’s a lot that is not on the test.
Debate is a skill that is useful to know,
Unless you’re in Congress or talk radio,
Where shouting and spouting and spewing are blessed
'Cause rational discourse was not on the test.

Thinking's important. It's good to know how.
And someday you'll learn to but someday's not now.
Go on to sleep, now. You need your rest.
Don't think about thinking. It's not on the test.