No Child Left Under a Certain Score: Needs-Based Assessment Tests
by Andrew Trent
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Can anyone remember when the act of learning used to be enjoyable? Luckily for me (and those of my generation), I’m not in high school anymore. Within the two years after I graduated (that would be the dark old days of 1999), terms such as “grad standards” and “student accountability” started to crop up, and notions of “student achievement” started to be measured on the basis of how many projects were completed to fulfill said standards.

Things started to come to a head in 2001, when the No Child Left Behind Act was passed, which put into law a standards-based assessment reform for all states. Under the auspices of this law, states were to develop assessments in basic skills given to students in all grades. In other words, students in every grade were required to achieve a certain numerical score in a variety of subjects, and teachers were obliged to “teach the test.” Oh, and by the way, students were supposed to be “learning” along the way (if you could call it that).

Achievement and accountability based on assessment tests is something that is not new. Throughout the decades, high schools, colleges, and graduate programs have required certain numerical scores in order for students to gain acceptance to the next level, as if mastering a 100 question multiple choice test was a rite of passage in the academic world. Never mind the fact that a student may have more strength in one area and less in another, just so long as the requirements are passed to appease the powers-that-be. Also never mind a student’s academic and career-related interests---the scores they achieve on the ACT, SAT, GRE, or any of the other acronym-laden lie detector tests will determine their success. Let’s face it, education has always dwelt a bit much on the achievement of certain numerical standards, only to increase this obsession in recent years.

If notions of “learning” and “achievement” are to be measured on the basis of numbers, than what becomes of learning and intellect? Knowledge is something that cannot (and should not) be contained by rote lists of random multiple choice questions. Achievement is truly realized when a student contributes something to his/her field of study, when visionary doors are opened by impassioned interest and the ability to reinvigorate a certain realm or mode of discourse. Knowledge is something that is to be cultivated, not measured, and the role of education should be to foster an interest and passion for a certain area of study. Classrooms were traditionally places in which ideas were discussed, analyzed, and debated for a higher individual and communal purpose---that of the sheer joy and profitability of learning.

So, if the education system truly desires that no child be left behind, it would serve well to focus less on numbers and more on the power of unenforced knowledge. It takes all kinds of people for a civilization to thrive, and the worth and intellect of an individual shouldn’t be forced to conform to the cookie cutter whims of numbers.