Thirty years ago, a federal report called "A Nation at Risk" warned that we were in desperate trouble because of the poor academic performance of our students. The report pointed to dreadful international test scores and complained that "on 19 academic tests American students were never first or second and, in comparison with other industrialized nations, were last seven times." With such terrible outcomes, the report warned, "the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people."
Thirty years ago, US scores on international tests were abysmal. So much so that the Reagan administration (and almost all that have followed) went out of its way to disrupt local control in order to implement/impose increasingly "rigorous" policies and programs designed to improve those test scores. And yet thirty years later, test scores are still stagnant and worse off than those reported by other countries. Ironically, we seem to have survived and are still here, apparently still the world's most dominant economy and most vibrant culture.
The latest iteration of the testing mania that has stood every school in the country on its head and turned most into test-prep junkies is No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. NCLB, dominant nationally for the last decade, provided no innovative instructional panaceas to help accomplish the impossible task of universal "proficiency" other than teacher-proof, scripted lessons designed to make sure all kids could pass the tests by 2014. How has THAT worked out? RTTP has adopted a much more learner friendly approach (Common Core), but as long as mastery is tied solely to performance on tests, we could be facing another decade of stagnation and standardization.
Since the 1960s, when international testing was first introduced and then conveniently used by proponents of this, that, and the other for their own narrow ends, we have swung back and forth between "just the facts" rigor and "discovery" processes. The test scores don't change.
The newest round, Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), was released yesterday. The US did poorly, ranking 17th, 21st and 26th out of 33 participating countries in reading, science and math. From my vantage point as both a historian and an educator, here is my takeaway from the PISA scores:
If they mean anything at all, the PISA scores show the failure of the past dozen years of public policy in the United States. The billions invested in testing, test prep, and accountability have not raised test scores or our nation's relative standing on the league tables. No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are manifest failures at accomplishing their singular goal of higher test scores.
Improving the quality of life for the nearly one-quarter of students who live in poverty would improve their academic performance.
We measure only what can be measured. We measure whether students can pick the right answer to a test question. But what we cannot measure matters more. The scores tell us nothing about students' imagination, their drive, their ability to ask good questions, their insight, their inventiveness, their creativity. If we continue the policies of the Bush and Obama administration in education, we will not only not get higher scores (the Asian nations are so much better at this than we are), but we will crush the very qualities that have given our nation its edge as a cultivator of new talent and new ideas for many years.