Are Standardized Tests Killing Creativity?

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Hey secondary education,  stop with the incessant testing! 


How many of you successful designers were scored high on your SAT, ACT, or whatever standardized tests? 

We have to stop this insane notion that repeatedly testing our middle school and high schoolers  is going to help them to be successful. 

This emphasis on testing ties the hands of our secondary teachers.

It causes art, and shop and craft classes to be cut.

The only thing it teaches is short term memorization, linear thinking, test taking strategy, and that there is only one answer to a problem. 

All of which is practically useless for design thinking and in real life.


Stop trying to quantify, and concentrate on quality education.

Comments

moofie said…
How do you know whether you've solved a problem unless you can measure it?

I confess, I am but a lowly professional engineer, and not worthy to opine on the subject, but something tells me that figuring out whether kids know stuff is a valid part of an educational strategy.

Now, I absolutely agree that focusing on that to the exclusion of creative work is not going to make good educational policy, but to simply say "stop taking tests!" is a combination infant-solution cleaner defenestration.
July 1, 2009 at 6:56 PM
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