BCT Editorial – 5/18/08

This page was last updated on May 18, 2008.

Test happy; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 18, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “It’s time to back away from the belief that exams reflect what children learn.”

This editorial is an example of what happens when your positions aren’t based on a sold set of core principles.

For heaven knows what reason, the Times has an editorial history of opposing tests to evaluate what kids learn. Previous examples include “Testing” and “Test results.” One of the gripes is the use of tests pushes teachers to “teach to the test” as if that’s something bad. Isn’t the purpose of standardized tests to ensure students learn those things we as a society deem important to learn? Therefore, doesn’t it make sense to “teach to the test?” By “teaching to the test,” teachers are teaching students what we’ve determined is important.

Almost incredibly, the editorial states, “This is not to absolve those in education of accountability.” Of course, the editorial doesn’t explain how to implement accountability without testing of some kind.

Then, after claiming tests don’t tell us what kids learn, the Times publishes editorials asserting this or that school district is failing its students and taxpayers and uses test scores as proof! Using the Times own logic, how do we know those allegedly failing school districts aren’t really doing a top notch job?

What’s missing from the editorial? There’s absolutely no acknowledgement of the need to evaluate what students learn before we push them “out of the nest” and into an environment in which they are expected to have the knowledge and skills to pursue the rest of their lives.