I'm not going to miss this

Tonight I think I can alter careers in good conscience. Standardized testing of aptitude in writing. Need I say more? As of right now, one standardized test requires a five-paragraph persuasive essay with no concession point. Another standardized test requires a concession point. Put a concession in one and get marked down. Fail to put a concession in the other one and lose a ranking. And it's not like the criteria for such tests are given to the students ahead of time for them to process, plan, and organize. It's just that one group of people decided that concession points are effective, and therefore all students should realize that too. Another group of people decided that concession points are not effective, and therefore students should be smarter than the other test designers and not put in a concession point.

We teachers can teach both. Of course we can. We teach several styles and purposes for writing, and we engage students in discussion of what techniques are most appropriate for different audiences and situations. Yet, to tell a student to write an essay on a standardized test and then evaluate them according to arbitrary formats instead of their skill in effective communication is ludicrous. Put in a summary sentence. Don't put in a summary sentence. Preview the main points. Don't preview the main points. This is so ridiculous. Evaluate someone's ability to communicate through the written word. If the essay grabbed a reader's attention, kept her interested, and presented facts in a clear, thought-provoking manner, why does it matter if there was a summary sentence or not? The workforce doesn't care. Higher academics doesn't care. But the state cares because it is something clear that can be quickly identified and scored on a rubric. Test. Evaluate. Rate me as a teacher. But please, evaluate what matters.

I am not going to miss those guidelines - they are lead balloons on a teacher's perspective. I know that no matter where I go or what I do I will have to jump through hoops, but, I'm enjoying a moment of relief knowing at least I won't have to jump through the standardized testing hoop next year.