Focus on standardized tests ruining public education

Standardized Test Scores.

Those three words head the list of reasons why teachers like me give up their dream of relishing those joyful, “I get it!” moments with students — when we open their minds to the knowledge and critical thinking so crucial to their success.

The “No Child Left Behind” preoccupation with such scores has led to a “teaching to the test” academic sinkhole, dumbing-down an America too cheap to pay for competent teaching talent.

Crushing paperwork, time crunches, absurd curricula and unrealistic expectations only accelerate the resulting exodus of quality teachers.

President George W. Bush’s witless test-and-punish program is not the only cause.

“Libs and Lawyers” took away the proverbial whip (ceiling-mounted, facial-recognition video automatically streamed to misbehaving kids’ parents would help), thus ceding classroom control to incorrigibles.

Add a litany of silly regulations, pointless meetings, worthless data collection, poor judgment (remember the seventh grader suspended for doodling a stick figure of a rifleman?), chronically-complaining parents, and we get predictable results:

Universities now remediate, rather than augment.

Comedy shows street-interview college students for “ignorance-entertainment.”

And private-school siphonings exacerbate de facto resegregation.

Why would any sane teacher stay?

That question took me to an emotional place far from my childhood dream of becoming a teacher, when I played school every afternoon with my stuffed animals and toy chalkboard. It took me far from my realization that there was never really a question of what I would do. And far from the pride I took in my love of children, my organizational skills, and my ability to stimulate analytical thought.

I’m grateful that I still work with children, but in a less controlling setting.

This story was originally published May 6, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Focus on standardized tests ruining public education."