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X-Out the Bubble-Ins
After a three hour test with bubble in answers and irrelevant multiple choice questions, I realized I am capable of so much more than this test reveals. So I can correctly identify the sentence with the proper use of commas, but how does that represent who I am as a person? The potential of my mind expands far beyond the limitations of the generic testing format. I deserve more recognition for my abilities than a number exposes.
We are pin points of data on a spreadsheet called Alpine Achievement. The numbers of standardized test results are crunched and then entered into columns and rows for the powers that be to analyze. Documented in this spreadsheet is the age, grade, social economic status, student ID number and many more factors that the administrative forces use to sort and contain us. Through quantitative data, they examine our achievement. To me, this seems like a limited definition of the word achievement.
Why is it that once a year they sit us down with pencils sharp and drone on in a monotonous tone about the expectations during the test? Is it to help us learn how to fill in bubbles with exact precision? In a three hour testing period, there is absolutely no way my “achievement” and potential can be measured. Standardized tests can only measure what a student can regurgitate on a paper, not the student’s ability to create beautiful work.
Many schools use these test scores to watch the personal growth of the students so they know where to refine their systems to improve the education. “Standardized assessment allows us opportunity to see where students are on a pathway to career and college readiness as outlined in the academic standards, and standardized assessments allow teachers to align instruction and plan to meet student’s individual needs,” reflects Christy Bloomquist, 9R school district Director of Federal Programs and Assessments. Yes, test scores can be used to help refine the system but do they paint a complete picture of the student?
Most teachers could probably tell us the same thing that this spreadsheet tells us. They know which kids don’t perform well, they know which kids have a hard time in class and they know that these are the kids coming from low income situations. It doesn’t take a standardized test to identify struggling students.
Standardized tests are a lens that forces the student to see the world in black and white. Right or wrong. Yes or no. Tell me where in our world answers are as simple as that besides in online surveys. We live in grays. We live in colors. A beautiful, holistic spectrum of hues.
As a student at Animas High School, a project based charter school, I know that the most effective way to measure my growth is through self-reflection and the original ideas I produce. High school students at AHS know what it takes to generate beautiful work. And after self-reflection, they know what they can improve.
This self-reflection comes from being truly inspired to learn. In modern education systems, it is rare to come across a student that genuinely cares about their education. However, the majority of students within these modulars are motivated adolescents that are curious about the world. They sure didn’t walk through those doors on the first day with inquiring minds. That skill developed over time because their teachers taught them to wonder about the world. Our teachers love what they do and they love how they do it. I trust their assessment of my achievement much more than my test scores.
Memorizing years, facts and numbers will not help students find success in life. So what if I can remember the answers for an hour to “fully fill in the bubble?” Are the tests allowing the schools, state and colleges to see my potential, or are they just revealing how well I take a test? Looking at the world with critical eyes, thoughtful perspectives and inquisitive questions will help students for the rest of their lives. My future employer will not care that I know how to use the word “epaulet” correctly in a sentence. The ability to memorize vocabulary is picayune to my ability to solve the problems my generation will face.
Salman Khan wrote in The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined, “Today's world needs a workforce of creative, curious, and self-directed lifelong learners, who are capable of conceiving and implementing novel ideas.” Thousands of students have brilliant minds, but they are boxed in by these tests that dictate far too much about our perspectives of success.
Every day, students should sit down with minds sharp to share their stimulating, developing views of the ever-changing world. We don’t need to memorize predetermined standards of knowledge; we need to be able to create our own.
We are pin points of data on a spreadsheet called Alpine Achievement. The numbers of standardized test results are crunched and then entered into columns and rows for the powers that be to analyze. Documented in this spreadsheet is the age, grade, social economic status, student ID number and many more factors that the administrative forces use to sort and contain us. Through quantitative data, they examine our achievement. To me, this seems like a limited definition of the word achievement.
Why is it that once a year they sit us down with pencils sharp and drone on in a monotonous tone about the expectations during the test? Is it to help us learn how to fill in bubbles with exact precision? In a three hour testing period, there is absolutely no way my “achievement” and potential can be measured. Standardized tests can only measure what a student can regurgitate on a paper, not the student’s ability to create beautiful work.
Many schools use these test scores to watch the personal growth of the students so they know where to refine their systems to improve the education. “Standardized assessment allows us opportunity to see where students are on a pathway to career and college readiness as outlined in the academic standards, and standardized assessments allow teachers to align instruction and plan to meet student’s individual needs,” reflects Christy Bloomquist, 9R school district Director of Federal Programs and Assessments. Yes, test scores can be used to help refine the system but do they paint a complete picture of the student?
Most teachers could probably tell us the same thing that this spreadsheet tells us. They know which kids don’t perform well, they know which kids have a hard time in class and they know that these are the kids coming from low income situations. It doesn’t take a standardized test to identify struggling students.
Standardized tests are a lens that forces the student to see the world in black and white. Right or wrong. Yes or no. Tell me where in our world answers are as simple as that besides in online surveys. We live in grays. We live in colors. A beautiful, holistic spectrum of hues.
As a student at Animas High School, a project based charter school, I know that the most effective way to measure my growth is through self-reflection and the original ideas I produce. High school students at AHS know what it takes to generate beautiful work. And after self-reflection, they know what they can improve.
This self-reflection comes from being truly inspired to learn. In modern education systems, it is rare to come across a student that genuinely cares about their education. However, the majority of students within these modulars are motivated adolescents that are curious about the world. They sure didn’t walk through those doors on the first day with inquiring minds. That skill developed over time because their teachers taught them to wonder about the world. Our teachers love what they do and they love how they do it. I trust their assessment of my achievement much more than my test scores.
Memorizing years, facts and numbers will not help students find success in life. So what if I can remember the answers for an hour to “fully fill in the bubble?” Are the tests allowing the schools, state and colleges to see my potential, or are they just revealing how well I take a test? Looking at the world with critical eyes, thoughtful perspectives and inquisitive questions will help students for the rest of their lives. My future employer will not care that I know how to use the word “epaulet” correctly in a sentence. The ability to memorize vocabulary is picayune to my ability to solve the problems my generation will face.
Salman Khan wrote in The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined, “Today's world needs a workforce of creative, curious, and self-directed lifelong learners, who are capable of conceiving and implementing novel ideas.” Thousands of students have brilliant minds, but they are boxed in by these tests that dictate far too much about our perspectives of success.
Every day, students should sit down with minds sharp to share their stimulating, developing views of the ever-changing world. We don’t need to memorize predetermined standards of knowledge; we need to be able to create our own.
Watch my Spoken word out loud and compare to the poem below!
Hear Me Roar
my voice is strangled by unseen hands turning my face blue
shh
they say
you are just a kid
But don’t they remember the china dolls with eyes painted wide?
don’t they notice the scorched irises of the youth that see but never speak?
We read the rules to their political ploys
how could we miss the protocols with the news hiding in the floors and seeping our pores through biased sources that spin
spin empty rhetoric with false authority
the information hides in the woodwork of the walls and winds its way into silently troubled dreams as we twist into a tangle of sheets when our skin is hot too touch, infected by the contagion
of
greed
Through linear time and “right and wrong” they desperately cling to control like a single mother below the poverty line clings to the simple fading hope of a fresh meal
I like to watch the supremacists panick, when they l o s e
control
because when their woven lies with patchy holes scattered across the cloth of legitimacy are too weak to hold their bulging waistbands and contain their busting pockets
their paper towns will crumble and melt under the pounding rain of a new generation
Here, now, in this moment
we are wise beyond expectation
we are cut from their cloth but we are stitched with our own thread
we are infiltrating their systems with new visions
we are permeating our youthful presence into the works of the public
we are at the steps of revolution
we are beating back the barricades to build “the beautiful”
we are breaking free the swollen hands that choke us
yes, it’s okay for us to bite the hand that feeds us when it’s the same hand that beats us
the sopranos, altos and baritones of our pure voices will ring and echo in the stone towns we build with strength and conviction
you’d better believe we have things to say, so don’t tell me I am less than you because of my
age.
Prepare the peanut gallery for
the cynicism of corrupted capitalism
the rant of restrictions on a revolver
the disgust of domesticated dining
the nasty nosiness of the NSA
the appalling abuse of America’s animals
Prepare the peanut gallery for the thundering voices of the youth
Here, now, in this moment:
Hear us roar.
shh
they say
you are just a kid
But don’t they remember the china dolls with eyes painted wide?
don’t they notice the scorched irises of the youth that see but never speak?
We read the rules to their political ploys
how could we miss the protocols with the news hiding in the floors and seeping our pores through biased sources that spin
spin empty rhetoric with false authority
the information hides in the woodwork of the walls and winds its way into silently troubled dreams as we twist into a tangle of sheets when our skin is hot too touch, infected by the contagion
of
greed
Through linear time and “right and wrong” they desperately cling to control like a single mother below the poverty line clings to the simple fading hope of a fresh meal
I like to watch the supremacists panick, when they l o s e
control
because when their woven lies with patchy holes scattered across the cloth of legitimacy are too weak to hold their bulging waistbands and contain their busting pockets
their paper towns will crumble and melt under the pounding rain of a new generation
Here, now, in this moment
we are wise beyond expectation
we are cut from their cloth but we are stitched with our own thread
we are infiltrating their systems with new visions
we are permeating our youthful presence into the works of the public
we are at the steps of revolution
we are beating back the barricades to build “the beautiful”
we are breaking free the swollen hands that choke us
yes, it’s okay for us to bite the hand that feeds us when it’s the same hand that beats us
the sopranos, altos and baritones of our pure voices will ring and echo in the stone towns we build with strength and conviction
you’d better believe we have things to say, so don’t tell me I am less than you because of my
age.
Prepare the peanut gallery for
the cynicism of corrupted capitalism
the rant of restrictions on a revolver
the disgust of domesticated dining
the nasty nosiness of the NSA
the appalling abuse of America’s animals
Prepare the peanut gallery for the thundering voices of the youth
Here, now, in this moment:
Hear us roar.
Animas High School 20091 U.S. 160, Durango, CO 81301 (970) 247-2474
My Contact Information: [email protected]
Updated on 1.27.14
My Contact Information: [email protected]
Updated on 1.27.14