Skip the Scantron: Americans Are Fed Up With Standardized Testing

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/08/24/americans-fed-up-standardized-testing?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-08-25

It might be the ripple effect of the opt-out movement, or maybe it’s a growing awareness of the stress both kids and K–12 educators are feeling. But requiring public school students to spend hours of class time bubbling in multiple choice answers on a standardized test—and then evaluating teachers with the results—seems to have fallen out of favor with the American public.

At least, that’s one of the major findings of the 47th annual PDK-Gallup poll. The survey found that 64 percent of respondents believe there’s too much emphasis on standardized testing in their local public schools. That’s a sharp reversal from 1970, when 75 percent of U.S. residents said they wanted kids in their community to take a nationally administered high-stakes exam so they could be sure students were on par with their peers.

Just 14 percent of public school parents polled responded that test scores, which usually arrive after the school year is over, are very important. That doesn’t mean Americans aren’t still interested in assessing how well students and schools are doing—they just want a return to more tried-and-true methods of measurement, such as how enthusiastic kids are and how they perform on regular assignments and tests. The poll found that nearly 80 percent of Americans responded that “how engaged students are with their classwork and their level of hope for the future are very important for measuring the effectiveness of the public schools in their community,” according to a statement from PDK.