by Warrior Staff

With the recent nationwide push towards the set of education standards known as Common Core, educational reform in the United States has been one of the hottest topics of the new year. As one of the most prominent educational figures in the state of Maryland, MCPS Superintendent Josh Starr made waves last month with the publication of an editorial in The Washington Post. Starr condemned standardized testing, calling for a three-year moratorium on the tests during which time testing companies could better align their assessments with Common Core.

We fully support Starr’s goal of drastically curtailing standardized testing, as neither current assessments, nor hastily created new ones, are an accurate representation of student knowledge. While the idea of a test that analyzes how hard a “typical” student is working is not objectionable, current standardized tests fail to accurately represent the information that is being taught in class. Standardized tests too often test only the student’s memory, not their understanding of a deeper concept. Additionally, many hardworking students find themselves labeled as “dumb” or “lazy,” not because they are actually deserving of these labels, but because they are bad test takers who don’t do well under pressure.

During the moratorium, states and individual school systems would have to come up with another way of analyzing student performance. We are of the opinion that quarter grades, coupled with tests made by the teacher—since the teacher knows better than the county what material has been emphasized in their class—would be far more accurate when determining students’ attainment of skills and content.

Common Core was not the only thing addressed in Starr’s editorial; the MCPS Superintendent also wrote in protest of the nationwide policy that plans on using standardized testing grades as a primary indicator of teacher performance. Once again, we completely agree with Starr’s position. A great teacher does everything in his or her power to prepare their students, but standardized tests often ask questions very different from the material that was actually taught. Teachers can only control what they teach the students—it is unfair to punish a good teacher who has lazy students, or students who do poorly on tests for other reasons. Additionally, giving so much weight to standardized tests on a teacher’s career all but ensures that the average teacher will “teach to the test” rather than actually covering all of the material. Rather than putting the pressure on students to make the teacher look good, the county should focus on the teacher’s performance. Tests are to evaluate students, not teachers. Teacher observations by an administration should increase in number, and at least one or two of them should be unannounced, giving the teachers and students no time to prepare for being on their “best behavior.” More importantly, if people really want to know how good or bad a teacher is, they should ask the students. The students spend approximately five hours a week with the teachers, and an anonymous survey can offer far better insight than the results on a state mandated test.