Michelle Rhee: Opting out of standardized tests? Wrong answer.
Michelle Rhee is the founder and chief executive of StudentsFirst. She was the chancellor of D.C. Public Schools from 2007 to 2010.
No, tests are not fun — but they’re necessary. Stepping on the bathroom scale can be nerve-racking, but it tells us if that exercise routine is working. Going to the dentist for a checkup every six months might be unpleasant, but it lets us know if there are cavities to address. In education, tests provide an objective measurement of how students are progressing — information that’s critical to improving public schools.
But in places like Colorado , Connecticut and New York , parents are getting in the way. We’re seeing a new and problematic movement within public education to persuade parents to pull their children from participating in any standardized testing. They’re opting out of the exams designed to measure how well our schools are teaching our children.
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This makes no sense. All parents want to know how their children are progressing and how good the teachers are in the classroom. Good educators also want an assessment of how well they are serving students, because they want kids to have the skills and knowledge to succeed.
Opt out of measuring how well our schools are serving students? What’s next: Shut down the county health department because we don’t care whether restaurants are clean? Defund the water-quality office because we don’t want to know if what’s streaming out of our kitchen faucets is safe to drink?
Tests serve many purposes: They chart progress. They identify strengths and weaknesses. They help professionals reach competency in their careers. All these measures are critical to improving public schools.
After all, the children sitting in classrooms today are going to grow up and compete for jobs with people in India and China and Europe, not just with people in the state next door. It’s our civic duty to make sure these kids are ready. And right now, we’re failing. Out of 34 developed nations, American kids rank 26th in the world in math, 21st in science and 17th in reading.
Let’s look at why some parents are opting out. The most common argument is that standardized testing takes too much