Analytical learning is the big loser in test score obsession

By Shannon Howrey

The House and Senate bills that reward pay for teacher performance (i.e. student standardized test performance) are meant to improve schools, resulting in a higher level of preparation of Georgia’s children.

This is meant to ensure a well-educated, successful work force resulting in a strong economy. However, the passing of these bills may actually result in the opposite.

Standardized tests measure knowledge and basic skills. To be standardized, the knowledge and skills have to fall into categories that can be measured numerically.

If the goal is to increase factual knowledge and the ability to perform simple discrete skill sets, then standardized tests work efficiently in accomplishing the task. But memorizing knowledge and performing discrete skills is only a small part of what people need to be successful.

Yale psychologist Robert Sternberg, who has studied successful people for several years, found that they possess a “triarchic” set of personal qualities.

One of these is “analytical” intelligence, which can, to some degree, be measured on standardized tests.

But, Sternberg found, equally important are two other types of intelligence: “creative intelligence,” or the ability to manipulate ideas and think about things in new ways, and “tacit intelligence,” or the social/emotional skills needed for dealing well with people.

These skills are not only necessary for success, but may be critical for survival in a globally and technically interconnected world: Thomas Friedman, author of “The World is Flat,” has stated that our country’s ability to compete in a global economy will depend on people with analytical skills to synthesize large amounts of information, creativity to apply that information to new ideas and products, and communication skills to lead teams of individuals from a variety of countries and cultures.

Research shows that children develop these creative and social skills through exposure to music, drama and visual arts; opportunities to apply mathematical and scientific knowledge in experiments and projects; and rich, open-ended discussion of literature and the social studies — all the types of programs and teaching approaches that will no longer receive validation or funding under these bills.

None of these examples can be measured through CRCT scores, as they require thinking outside the box, not marking inside a box from a set of predetermined right-or-wrong answers. The House and Senate bills that define and reward the success of students, teachers and schools based primarily on standardized test numbers are dangerously short-sided, and capture only a small portion of the knowledge and skills that Georgia’s children will need to succeed in the 21st century.

Shannon Howrey is an assistant professor of education at North Georgia College & State University.