Standardized testing perpetuates educational inequality

For years, students have suffered the brunt of standardized testing, and the Obama administration wants to put an end to that anguish.

On Saturday, the White House posted a video to Facebook pledging to take steps to reduce testing overload. The Obama administration is recommending states cap standardized test taking to 2 percent of class time.

Reducing time spent on testing frees up resources that schools can allocate to more effective educational initiatives. But while we’re assessing the value of standardized testing, we should also examine how we can improve the public school evaluation process.

There are better methods of evaluating students’ performance — and a school’s ability to prepare students for success following high school — than standardized testing. Standardized testing focuses primarily on preparing students to enter college — a career path that does not suit everyone.

This sets off a chain reaction. Aligning resources with the potential for college success creates a gap in marketable skills between students of different economic backgrounds.

Since the mid-1970s, the income achievement gap in standardized test scores between low-income and high-income students has increased by 40 percent, according to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

In “The Widening Academic Achievement Gap between the Rich and the Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations,” Sean Reardon, a professor of education and sociology at Stanford, writes, “The income-achievement gap is now more than twice as large as the black-white achievement gap.”

This makes socioeconomic status a larger determiner of academic achievement than race.

Failing to address educational inequalities costs us in the long run.

According to a report conducted by the McKinsey’s Social Sector Office, which serves school systems in the United States and around the world, closing the income achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 would have raised the GDP in 2008 from $400 billion to $670 billion.

Countries that have already lightened the pressure of standardized testing — especially those that consistently outperform the United States, including Scandinavian countries like Finland and Norway  — provide examples of alternative systems of evaluation and resource allocation.

Rather than focusing on standardized tests, Finland emphasizes giving all students the same opportunity to learn by working to reduce inequalities in education across the country.

Finland’s objective has proved effective. According to the most recent 2012 PISA — Programme for International Student Assessment — results, Finland ranked 12th in mathematics, fifth in science and sixth in reading. In comparison, the United States ranked 36th in mathematics, 28th in science and 24th in reading.

In Finland, there are no standardized tests outside of the National Matriculation Exam, which students take at the end of a voluntary upper-secondary school. Periodically, the Ministry of Education tests sample groups across a range of different schools.

Finland doesn’t only focus on levelling the educational field. Finland schools have diversified the education of their students — assigning less homework and engaging students in more creative play.

Norway follows a similar system of diversification of education — and like Finland, it outperforms the United States, ranking 30th in mathematics, 31st in science and 22nd in reading.

American schools could benefit from broadening their scope beyond college prospects to areas like vocational training.

If the United States evaluated public schools based on the careers and incomes their graduates acquire — both holistically and statistically — schools would change how they allocate resources. Resources would go toward teaching students skills that can prepare them for the work force after high school, rather than teaching them standardized testing material that only prepares them for college.

We should evaluate schools by the students they produce and the opportunities they have to succeed, and cut the cord between standardized testing and the public education system.