I hated taking benchmarks during school. I hated having to do STAR testing during school. To me, (and to tons of students and teachers alike still, today) it just seemed like a complete waste of time.
Looking at it on the other side of things, however, has changed my perspectives pretty much completely. (Thank you, Critical Issues in Education class.)
No, Bush's NCLB probably wasn't the best idea in the world, nor will it ever completely, 100% fix the achievement gap. And no, Obama's Race to the Top will probably not yield the amazing, positive results everyone is hoping for.
But still.
We discuss the disadvantages of standardized testing, and how they go against practically everything "good" teaching stands for. Without standardized testing, though, how is the nation supposed to measure the achievement level of the kids? Achievement being a fairly arbitrary term, of course. Yeah, standardized testing generally only tests English and math, with maybe a little bit of history and science on the side. So it doesn't cover all the possible "intelligences" of a child's brain, so it might not call upon the arts. What is the country supposed to do? Administer individual tests catered to each and every student's specific needs? Impossible.
There's a lot more to be done, and a lot more that can be done, but for the first time, I feel like I understand that we're doing the best we can with the resources we have available. And maybe not.
But maybe benchmark assessments every semester weren't such a bad thing, after all.
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