Way too much is made of standardized test scores. The nation frets over them the way hypochondriacs fret over their bowel movements. Columnists and bloggers treat them as if they were Biblical. School officials anticipate their unveiling as a condemned man awaits execution. Parents hesitate to even look at their kid's results.Yet, even at their best, standardized tests measure largely trivial things. They tell us nothing at all about schooling's actual impact on learning, about the ability to actually think critically, about what they are learning about a meaningful life, or even about the good, the true and the beautiful.
Apologists say, standardized tests aren't perfect, but we need some measure of schooling's effectiveness.” Sure, but there already are readily available measures that offer a much better gauge. All we need do is summon up our courage and start identifying and monitoring them. Let's call these measures of schooling's success the "Index of Leading Educational Indicators."
Here is a tentative list of such indicators. Keep in mind, it is provisional, requires development and is likely to step on a lot of sensitive toes.
Here is a powerful index of schooling's effectiveness. Count the number of adults who regularly use Facebook, X or Instagram, where there is no responsible editorial oversight, and yet feel fully informed, and you measure just how badly schooling has failed. The information they rely on is clearly based on half-baked personal beliefs, nutty conspiracy theories, the alleged influence of aliens, crackpot alternatives to accepted research, and the like. Using this sort of thing as a source of reliable information is another measure of schooling’s success.
- THE POPULARITY OF SHLOCK TELEVISION SHOWS
Count the dedicated fans of shows like "Ancient Aliens," "The Jerry Springer Show'" "Jersey Shore," " or "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo?" and you also are counting educational failures. The more numerous the viewers of this low-brow trash, the gloomier we should be about the nation's schooling outcomes.
Every Jonestown resident who willingly swigged lethal 'Cool Aid' represents a schooling failure. So do the men in David Koresh's cult who permitted Dave to sexually service their wives and daughters because, as Koresh patiently explained to them, he was the only man pure enough for the job. And what about the schooling of that Heaven's Gate crowd who had themselves castrated to conform with "Bo" and "Peep's" teachings, then "left their bodily containers" to rendezvous with a space ship concealed behind the Hale-Bopp comet. Enumerating the followers of such movements is certainly a measure of educational failure.
- SUPERMARKET TABLOID SALES
The sales figures of these grotesque gazettes provide a far more valid measure of educational progress than anything ETS could dream up. I'm talking about those papers that headline things like "WOMEN COMMITS SUICIDE IN DISHWASHER!", or "HALF BOY, HALF DOLPHIN WASHES UP ON BEACH!" Tabloid sales figures are an inverse measure of educational progress.
- THE POPULARITY OF FLIM-FLAM TELEVANGELISTS
The income figures of bunko artist TV preachers, available from the IRS Tax Exempt Branch, are a sure measure of schooling's effectiveness. The more money Bible pounding bunko artists make, the less well our schools are doing. Consider the sacerdotal chap who supposedly lapses into "trances" while conducting worship services. The Holy Spirit then uses this pastor's vocal apparatus to speak directly to the congregation. The "Reverend" claims he has no idea what the Spirit says. He has to ask the congregation after he regains consciousness. The amount of money sent to guys like this should be monitored carefully, because it is an inverse measure of schooling effectiveness.
- THE APPEAL OF FORTUNE TELLERS AND PSYCHICS
Imagine visiting a store-front psychic or fortune teller to decide who and when you should marry, if the one you love, loves you, or how to make a distant person think of you. People seriously do this. And it is a telling measure of schooling's ineffectiveness. Besides, if these individuals really can see into the future, why aren't they rich? Think of their unique investment opportunities?
- THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER LIST
It’s encouraging when people who have attended our schools read books at all. But the quality of the books on this best-seller list are a measure of schooling's success or failure. A few years back, for example, millions of folks found it plausible to consider that God may have secretly constructed his own seek and find word game in the Holy Bible. For these folks, schooling was definitely a failure.
- THE QUALITY OF ELECTED OFFICIALS
Politicians in the mold of Marjorie Taylor Green provide irrefutable, if unintentional, proof that the schools, at least in their district, aren’t getting it done. We should keep tabs on this. When a majority of our politicians engage in logical reasoning, rely on factual knowledge, are trustworthy, and unassociated with preposterous prevarications and posturing for the media, we’ll know our educational system is doing a better job.
WHAT ABOUT NON-SCHOOL FACTORS?
This Index of Leading Educational Indicators would be more powerful than anything the likes of the Educational Testing Service or Psychological Corporation could possibly contrive. But you are thinking that schools are not exclusively, even mainly, responsible for the presently dismal state of affairs that this index would probably reveal. You're reasoning that many people simply lack adequate intelligence; and that others are too lonely, angry, scared, or what have you, to learn much of anything worthwhile.
To that I say, "so what?" Educators aren’t chiefly responsible for present-day standardized test scores either. All sorts of non-school factors interfere. Nevertheless, teachers still get blamed by everyone from pissed off parents to the U.S. Secretary of Education. The point is to blame someone. And it might as well be teachers because they haven’t shown either the ability or the inclination to fight back. They just cringe and take it.
To examine these issues further, see articles at www.newfoundations.com
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