by Sylvia Harrison

Created on: September 26, 2009

Should schools require more rigorous testing of students to determine literacy levels?

Absolutely not. Different children learn in different ways and progress in different time frames. How many times will it take lowering a child's self esteem by deeming them "failures" in literacy levels before our public school system discovers that testing is biased. Many, many children do not test well. This does not mean that they are not literate. It means that they don't test well. These same children may actually be getting A's and B's in the classroom*. They know how to read. Their comprehension levels are very good. But they do not test well at all. Especially located in this bracket are LD, ADHD, CAPD, Autistic, and many other children who do not learn the same or test the same as their peers. There are also students who test extremely well and, in everyday activities just can't meet the standards put upon them.

Standardized testing can be a great tool. It cannot tell us which children are more literate than others. It does not have the capability to assess differences in learning, understanding directions, testing time frames, and many other variables.

Testing literacy levels in schools is just another way for school systems, government systems, etc., to show they understand more of the "What do you know" than the "How can you learn what you don't know"! It is becoming political. We want our country to stand out as a more literate country than most. That's great. It's a wonderful outlook. It does not, however, commend our school systems. It does not show our youth that it is ok to be a day care worker, a janitor, a plumber, or any other tradesman who hasn't excelled and enjoyed reading and comprehension. The average student is not going to be a brain surgeon. The average student is not going to be a literary critic.

The literacy testing already in place in our school systems causes more problems than it is worth. It points to teachers who are trying to reach classrooms that have over 30 children in them. It points to the children in those classrooms who can do the work but have trouble with the social aspects of proving it. It makes the classroom into a rush for attainment. Teachers are to have so much taught each section of each year. Does that really make sense? How can one demand that students of varying natures, characteristics, intelligence, organization skills, backgrounds etc., be taught exactly the same amount of knowledge and in the same time frame?

Instead of more rigorous literacy testing of our youth, let's allow them the freedom they deserve and are owed by our Constitution. They deserve to be taught if they are willing to learn! They deserve to learn all they are capable of no matter what personal conditions they are dealing with. They deserve to be made to feel proud of their accomplishments instead of put into a list of statistics that tell them they may just be failures! Instead of judging our school systems and our students, how about we work harder to ensure that every child has the right to feel he is succeeding in our school systems and that, though he may be learning slower or in a different way, he will still be accepted and learning options expanded for him NO MATTER WHAT!

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