Standardized testing blues

Its been a tough week in public education.  In our high school we have had End-Of-Course or EOC testing.  In the middle and elementary schools in our district we have had TCAP assessments.  All the pressure and continuing pressure that these standardized test put on school is districts is just absurd.  My daughter who is 12 years old and in 6th grade can see that these test are absurd and in no way a reflections of what she has learned this year.  This year she had a really tough science teacher.  The teacher taught to the standards but also taught them so much more.  They did weekly experiments and really made science come alive for my daughter, so this week when I picked her up from school after the she had taken the science portion of the TCAP I asked her how she thought she did.  She told me that she felt like she did terrible.  The test was really hard and covered topics that weren't taught.  So I then asked her if she felt like she her teacher had taught her well and if she had learned a lot in science this year.  She told me she had learned so much and was disappointed that what she had learned wasn't on the test.  These test that our students are forced to take every year are just absurd.  My daughter, like many other students would like to show what they know instead of answering some random multiple choice question test. 

As an educator, we see research all the time that talks about how to keep students engaged in learning and it seems impossible to do what research suggests as best practices and also make sure you are teaching to the test.  In my opinion, and we are already beginning to see it, students will be less able to think and reason because they have been taught for some many years only how to memorize and regurgitate for a multiple choice test.  This is very frighting as an American.  We are dumbing down our curriculum because of standardized tests.  We don't allow students to construct their own knowledge and learn in a more individualized fashion, because we can't, these kids must pass a test or else.  So when does the educator have time to engage these learners?  When will we students be able to construct their own learning?  I believe the answer is when politics gets out of education and educators take back education.

I know this is probably a pipe dream, but I'm an optimist so maybe one day we will see then end of Standardized testing.