Students Know it, Too: There's No Such Thing as Standardized Learning

Seattle's NBC affiliate, King 5 news, interviewed three Garfield students who all said most kids at the school believe the test is pretty useless and they're supporting their teacher's decision to not administer it. One teen noted what many progressive education experts and reformers have been saying for years: "there's no such thing as standardized learning so standardized testing doesn't really work." All three students also said that students feel no responsibility to do well on the test because it doesn't impact their grades. That means the results are "not an accurate representation of any sort of learning that's taking place."

Indeed, in the original manifesto explaining why they're refusing to continue giving the test the teachers say,

"...students do not take the test seriously as they know that it will not directly impact their class grade or graduation status. They approach it less and less seriously the more times they take it. Therefore, we see achievement scores go down after instruction. We object to spending scarce resources on a test that is peripheral to our students' education."

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The district has backed away from its threats to suspend the teachers, instead choosing to pull students individually to administer the test. However, many Garfield students have already taken the step of having their parents opt them out of the test. One of the students in the video above says the teachers haven't pressured them at all to not take the test. Instead, the students find the controversy over the test "a lot less distracting than the test itself."

In the meantime, Garfield's teachers are hosting a free webinar on Sunday February 10th to share why they chose to opt out of the administering the MAP test. No doubt, they hope to inspire other students, parents, and educators across the nation to take a stand against ineffective testing, too.

Click here to add sharing the Opt Out Toolkit to your GOOD "to-do" list.