Teachers Protest Standardized Tests

(Sterling Heights, Michigan) The Utica Community School System serves several townships north of Detroit with a total student enrollment of almost 30,000 taught by 1,700 teachers. Over 14,000 students attend seven junior and four senior high schools. To provide for consistency in the quality of education from classroom to classroom, the district has instituted a policy of "common assessments" which requires all students within a school be given the same end-of-semester exams in given subjects.

The teachers from each subject area collaborate to create the common assessment exam bank. Teachers then prepare exams for their classes with the requirement that common assessment exam questions must comprise at least 75% of the test. The balance of the test content is at the discretion of the individual teachers. Obviously, giving a similar exam to a multitude of students scattered through many classrooms will provide the district with data to better allocate resources. Administrative focus can be directed to areas identified as needing additional help.

The new policy seems beneficial to the overall student body, however, the teachers are not happy. In fact, they're so unhappy that the teachers union organized a protest rally outside the administration offices this past week to voice their concerns. According to Utica Education Association Executive Director Emalee Baldwin,

"Uniform tests do not take students with special learning styles or other individual needs into consideration."

Would anyone like to take a stab at explaining what her statement means? Would anyone like to explain "special learning styles?" Baldwin seems to be pumping smoke and, as such, it's not clear whether or not the teachers have a valid complaint.

I am not in academia and I might be way off base, but it sure appears to me that the teachers union is stifling progress to protect the incompetent among the faculty. If standardized tests are given and results are unsatisfactory, effectively a finger has been pointed towards the teacher. When subsequent and repeated corrective action doesn't solve the problem, then the teacher must be reassigned. It would seem that the common assessment approach also prevents individual teachers from significantly altering course content, for whatever reason, and depriving students from gaining necessary knowledge.

Standardized tests are a method to assess, monitor, and document progress and the teachers shouldn't complain. In the long run, students become more knowledgeable and the teachers become more proficient. What's not to like?