After spending days scouring teh interwebz for articles to critique for my 3rd assignment this semester, I came across this article from guest columnist Leticia Van De Putte in the El Paso Times. The article "Testing measures must be changed to enhance success", written Feb 17, 2013 addresses WHY our current standardized testing process should be changed. I did not know who Mrs. Van De Putte was prior to this article but I came to be highly impressed by this individual. Mrs. Van De Putte is better known as Texas State Senator Van De Putte, District 26 (San Antonio/Bexar County), and her background includes a lengthy tenure in the Texas House of Representatives (5 terms) and has been State Senator for 15 years. Other political accomplishments include the 2008 Democratic National Convention Co-Chair (alumnus include Dr. Barbara Jordan and Gov. Ann Richards) and a Harvard education. She also happens to have 6 children and 6 grandchildren and a slew of other honors, awards, and acknowledgements. Her bio can be found at http://www.vandeputte.senate.state.tx.us/ and her home page is http://www.leticiavandeputte.com/. On her home page, I noticed on her twitter account a retort to Charles Barkley's mental diarrhea about large women (seen here on youtube) and while Barkley probably does not follow Senator VDP's tweets, her spunk is clearly evident. I like her already, and with all she has accomplished I can draw no other conclusion that Mrs. Van De Putte is clearly SuperWoman.
Regarding the article, Senator VDP starts with anecdotal conjecture and can be paraphrased with Mama Bears are concerned with HOW their children are tested, not the why. Her target audience is parents of any public school child, pointing out that the crucial flaws of standardized testing does not address more important benchmarks of an educated child - critical thinking, problem solving, and technological competency. Being a parent myself and acutely aware of how ridiculous STAAR tests are, Senator VDP immediately had my attention. Also consider my 10 year old daughter- she goes to school 5 days a week, 7 hours a day. During that time, she has PE every other day for 20 minutes, music every other day, and their lunch is an awesome 20 minutes. Something has to be occupying her time, and i bet it is a curriculum fabricated by people who don't know what they are doing as evidenced by statistics.
VDP discusses how the 15 benchmarks of STAAR are burdensome; 3 elements - algebra, english, and writing are really the most important litmus for evaluating a child's education. Looking over the other criteria, US and World History are important subject areas, but they seem more like memorization of facts and dates, then a regurgitation (sorry Dr. Seago, nothing personal) of said dates and facts. Ideally I would love my children to have a strong grasp on history, physics, and geometry but what is more important is the teaching of my kids HOW to think, not what they should know arbitrarily. This brings my to my next point, which coincides with VDP. She remarks about how China has the hardest college entrance exam in the world yet they cannot produce the next Steve Jobs. I have heard before anecdotally that Singaporean people are the most educated people in the world, yet all their R&D leaders are Americans because as a society, they are educated through a rigorous state curriculum (common that children go to school 5 days a week, 12 hours a day usually w 2 hrs tutoring - Dan Rather Reports) and their social time is compromised. This understandably leads to the inability to take initiative.
Back to the topic, Texas ranks dismally in education - Texas ranks 50th among the states in the percentage of its population 25
or older with a high school diploma (statistical evidence created by people who don't know what they are doing)! Last place! Let's not forget we are 1st in the nation in executions though! Even though China and Singapore don't have a Steve Jobs, they do have low unemployment (2%). So, there is something to be said about the rigorous standardized education if a nation of minions led creatively by other countries is what we are after.
