Standardized tests are now a way of academic life. Teachers are graded on how well students perform. Student grades depend on the results of one test. Although the premises of a standardized test to ensure all students are receiving a fair education, the applications of such test are woefully lacking.
So much emphasis is placed on these tests, but how valid are they? Apparently, not very. Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia just signed a bill that will allow thousands of students to obtain their diplomas even though they did not pass the graduation test.
This new bill, signed Monday, March 30, 2015, eliminates the Georgia High School Graduation Test as a requirement for students to receive their diploma. Under House Bill 91, which gained final passage in the General Assembly last week, students who have taken the test since its inception in 1994 but didn’t pass it will be able to submit a petition to their local school system to determine their eligibility.
The Georgia Board of Education abolished the test as a requirement for high school graduation back in 2011. However, the rule did not extend to students who had failed the test before that year.
“[The new law] makes it possible for those students to finally obtain their high school diploma so they can move on to a brighter future,” state School Superintendent Richard Woods said Monday. “Those who have completed all of the requirements for graduation except for passing one test on one given day now have the opportunity to go on to some form of post-secondary education, where they can obtain skills needed to have a great quality of life and be contributors to our society.”
For years, and for some decades, students in Georgia were not granted a high school diploma because of a test. All students were give five (5) attempts to pass a test that was not written on a 12th grade level. It was written on, at best, a 10th (if not lower). For those that did fail, classes were available for free to students. Booklets were created as study material that consisted of questions from the test.
Granted, teachers do not believe that one test should “rule them all.” Both teachers and students suffered from this test. If a student failed, or a percentage of students failed, the teacher would be fired. If this test is now invalid, do teachers get their jobs back? Do students get compensation for lack of income because they had lower paying jobs or did not get the chance to go to college? How to you place a price on self-esteem?
Politicians need to let teachers teach.
