More Than a Score by Jesse Hagopian

Author:Jesse Hagopian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, Current Affairs
ISBN: 978-1-60846-436-4
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2014-11-12T05:00:00+00:00

“518-455-4767”

Mr. Woytila, Mr. Fisher, honored guests, parents, friends, families, and members of the class of 2013.

First and foremost, let’s thank all of our families for their support and guidance over the past eighteen years, and for never giving up on us. We also owe our teachers and administrators many thanks for motivating us to try our hardest and for giving up their free time to help us out. They have all provided us with many great opportunities and have served as excellent role models.

Now I don’t think I’m qualified to stand up here and give two hundred and fifty students advice, and I’m sure you have received enough motivation and insight from Mike and Mr. Fisher, so I’ll just take the opportunity to voice an opinion. What I would really like to address here is the current state of public education.

This year, New York has joined four other states in following the Common Core standards. The goal is for every student in New York to learn the same things as every student in all of the other states. And in order to do this, we apparently have to triple the number of standardized tests that students take in exchange for state funding. This year we took assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of each course as part of this new system.

Some people think this will challenge our students to work harder, and help the US to rise above other countries in academic rankings. They say that once we adjust to the change, these tests will be beneficial. On the other hand many teachers, principals, and administrators across the state have felt the need to retire early, since their job descriptions have changed so drastically that they hardly consider themselves educators anymore. Most say that it has become all about tests and numbers and that there is very little focus on the students.

Whether you are for or against these assessments seems to depend on how you define learning. Perhaps it is your perspective that better test scores mean your child is understanding more. To me, testing has little connection to learning, and knowledge is not something that can be definitively measured with grades.

Regardless, these state assessments sit kids down for an exam on the first day of school, testing things that will take them at least a year to learn. That’s pretty discouraging in high school and I can’t imagine what that does to a first grader’s motivation. Learning should be about discovery. Does it make sense to begin your discovery with a summary of the journey?

No, that’s really just cheating yourself. You see, introducing subjects with the most difficult topics first is not a good way to get people excited about learning. We are students, not statistics. And these tests should have no effect on how we are taught. And they are affecting how we are taught.

The thing is, our educational system is built for the average student. Multiple choice means that answers need to be watered down, so they test the most general concepts.

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