Standardized Testing Makes Us Fat

With all the information available on diet and health, it’s clear that too much fat, whether it be in your food or on your body, is not good for your well-being. As with most things, measured amounts are okay. Maybe that’s why Weight Watchers is so successful.

If you are a test watcher like me, you know that an imbalance in your assessment diet can cause academic indigestion. Too much of one kind of assessment reduces opportunities to use a spectrum of assessments from minute by minute formative to alternative measures of authentic learning.

                        

Too much fat slows us down, making us less agile and making it harder to respond promptly to progress and gaps in learning. It puts the focus on the standardized test rather than other types of nutritional assessments that our students desperately deserve.

Fat clogs the foundations and pathways of learning. Peak learning occurs when students are engaged in working towards visible learning targets, are given choice, encouraged to be curious, take ownership, apply their learning, receive functional feedback, and work in partnership with others. (Notice that taking standardized tests is not on this high yield list)

When we fill our plate with fat there is no room for nourishing deeper and higher learning. We cannot help our students develop an appetite for creativity, collaboration, civic responsibility, metacognition, and more.

Rather than filling our children with empty calories, let’s return to a more balanced assessment diet, so that all learners are nurtured, learning is fortified, and comprehensive assessment is the norm.