On Standardized Testing

Recently, President Obama released a statement on American education. He lamented the amount of time U.S. high school students spend preparing and taking standardized tests. Obama proclaimed that American schools will go under a new “Testing Action Plan,” which will reduce the amount of time spent on exams at school.

I believe that Exeter should also reflect on his statement for reduced time and importance placed on exams. At Exeter, the present value placed on tests are shown through a typical syllabus: 25 percent participation, 25 percent assignments and 50 percent tests. The grading rubric might have slight variations depending on the subject, but for the majority of the classes that enforce testing into the course—math, sciences, classics and modern languages—these are the average percentages.

One thing is clearly portrayed from this statistic: Exeter puts a higher importance on tests than on participation and assignments. I find this taxing because Exeter has a more effective method than tests to evaluate a student. We use Harkness in all of our classes, which allows teachers to assess a student’s progress much more effectively than do tests. Tests are also generally one-shot, while discussions allow students to improve and build their knowledge overtime. Rarely in life are things one-shot. I believe that life is a more collaborative process where valuable achievements are eventual gains through trial and error. Harkness discussions reflect this, while tests do not. Despite participation being an able way to assess a student, the statistic shows that the influence of test scores on a student's grade is significantly higher at Exeter.

Do tests deserve the throne of determining a student’s grade? In my opinion, tests at Exeter only judge an individual’s quality of retention. Exonians understand that tests play the heaviest part in their final grade. Therefore, students naturally try to focus more on their tests than on their daily Harkness discussions. I often hear my peers express that due to time strained schedules, they ultimately decide to put more effort into tests—which their grades are more dependent on—than on their daily homework assignments and their Harkness discussions. This fosters an environment where students lie their way around their daily class discussion as they do not spend enough time on the homework materials prior to class.

Because students put little effort into daily homework assignments, they easily end up cramming before the test day. Tests should provide motivation for one to better comprehend the material. Counterintuitively, the memorization of mass information in a short period of time to prepare for tests leads to the equally rapid loss of information. Tests essentially end up assessing a student's skill of temporary retention. Moreover, students often pull all-nighters or get little rest to cram before tests. While tests are effective tools to assess students in many high schools, at Exeter, testing is favorable to neither students’ education nor their mental and physical health.

If students put more effort into following the class daily, they will cultivate a long term storage of knowledge. This can be sought through augmenting the importance of daily participation. Lasting knowledge is the natural purpose of education, and by weighting test grades more heavily than daily participation, Exeter is ironically nurturing the skill to cram knowledge that will be quickly forgotten.

The importance on tests at Exeter is admittedly less so than in public schools without a Harkness participation discussion. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average number of students per class in American high schools is around 24—twice the standard number of students per class at Exeter. The common system of participation in high schools allows students to put their hands up to answer the teacher’s question. With abundant students and limited number of questions from the teacher, it is logically impossible for many teachers to assess every individual student of a class through participation like at Exeter. At Exeter, however, we should take advantage of the fact that we already have the Harkness discussion as an effective instrument to assess a student’s comprehension in class.

Exeter and the rest of America still enforce tests because the schools need to show outcomes: both for teachers to assess their student and for colleges. While this is realistic, it is harmful to students’ education. Students focus more on tests and grades—solid “outcomes” that colleges can judge the students on—than attaining a good education.

Fortunately, 280 colleges, including prestigious institutions such as George Washington University, have been advocating the movement to place lower value on testing by going “test optional.” By going test optional, the colleges have voiced that they want high schoolers to understand that test scores—such as the SAT and the ACT—should not occupy the majority of the space in building a student’s character. Regressively at Exeter, test scores still play a large role in a student’s grade and tend to determine a student’s profile to colleges.

I am not a fan of testing. I believe in holistic assessment rather than allowing one form of testing to determine a person’s intellectuality. There is a significant number of students at Exeter who are as diligent and knowledgeable as any of their peers, yet perform poorly under testing environments. Testing for those students is not an accurate representation of their intelligence. I also strongly believe that most people will be motivated without tests or exams. Tests do not serve as a great motivation for people to become smarter intellectuals because the most they serve as is a nudge; fundamentally, students will always only succeed to their innate potential.

Conclusively, tests are not conducive to learning nor evaluating a student’s grade and intellectuality. However, as eradicating tests at Exeter permanently is unrealistic, I contend that participation should weigh higher than tests in all courses at Exeter. Our institution should join the movement with the White House and the rest America in devaluing tests once and for all.