My wife, who is a registered nurse, has the unfavorable responsibility of finding a new job since we have moved for mine. In doing so, she had to take a test.  A sample of the test is the screengrab above, which made me think about something.  She is a great nurse and, while not great at math, can work her way through pretty much any problem.  She got flustered because she knew the answers, eliminated a couple distractors, and had to second-guess herself.  If we completely abandon standardized testing because it is unfair to have kids fill in bubbles and avoid distractors, are we really helping them?

Just some food for thought:

CSET (Teaching)
CBEST (Teaching)
NCLEX (Nursing)
MCAT (Doctor)
LSAT (Lawyer)
ACT (College)
SAT (College)
NHA (Nursing Home Administration)

All of these assessments, if passed with a certain score, allow students to advance their careers in some very highly respected fields.  They still have to complete performance tasks and demonstrate their knowledge in some sort of interview of practicum, but a failed test denies the student all rights to pursue a career in the given field.  In no way am I saying that we should be testing as much as we do.  My son is about to enter the school system and I dread the day he has to take his kindergarten state standardized test.  

However, are we doing our children a disservice by tossing the notion of standardized testing out the window in secondary?  Should we be teaching test-taking strategies?

Happy fishing

This question has been weighing on my mind for quite some time.  I have a 3 year-old boy and 10 month-old boy who will, sooner than later, enter into our nation's education system.  Sure, they are learning right now at home by coloring, solving puzzles, being challenged and educated the way that their parents were raised.  However, when it comes time to enroll them in school, would we be comfortable sending them to the same system that I work for?