Resumo de It Takes A Potemkin Village To Raise A Child?s Test Scores

It Takes A Potemkin Village To Raise A Child?s TestScores is a critical look at statewide standardized testing, most notablythe MEAP test. An anonymous authorknown only as the Grim Meaper who indeed takes a critical, borderline cynical,view of standardized tests, writes the book.Nevertheless, from the observations the Grim Meaper makes about thesetests, one might conclude that she has a right to be critical. Originally,?testing was supposed to identify students and schools with the greatest needsso they could be helped? (p.50).Basically, tests were originally intended to identify schools thatneeded the most funding but they were not intended to be the only means ofmeasuring education. But, as the Meaperpoints out, lately the trend has been to use the tests to gauge how well oneschool is doing compared to another (p.50-51).The tests are the only tool being used to evaluate education in schooldistricts. Why? Because it is the easiest means ofmeasurement. This ends up pitting oneeducational institution against another so they might look better than theirneighbor. The Meaper concordantlyargues that ?competition produces better cars, not better education? (p. 59). Otherunintended consequences of standardized testing have occurred. First of all, what is covered on the statetests has in some cases become all that is taught in the curriculum, also knownas ?teaching the test? (p.73). This isdangerous for obvious reasons: Students can miss out on valuable education thatwould have prepared them better for college or the workplace, and the goal ofcurriculum changes from being in the best interests of each student to being inthe best interests of the state (p. 79).Secondly, standardized testingturns students into faceless statistics, downgrading their humanity. Much akin to the futuristic distopia novel BraveNew World (p. 124). There arethousands of consequences that come with this.The Meaper lays out a few. TheMeaper claims that tests can become a determining tool, a way for governmentand business to predestinate where the student can be placed in the future (p.129). The Meaper also points out thedanger in oversimplifying such a complex issue such as education. Finally, cheating practicesincrease in schools (103). Schools anddistricts feel the pressure to do well on the tests, so they distribute thetests ahead of time, keep certain students from taking the tests, or evenchange students? answers after they have taken the test. This makes for untrue results and thereforemisplacement of funds and incorrect assumptions of how students areprogressing.Basically, through all of this the Meaper argues thatstandardized Test Scores have become the new zeitgeist in education. The only motivation to implement any changein education is to improve test scores (p. 70).

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