177- THOSE HIGH SCHOOL TESTS?....

They've been around high schools for decades and still are inept at uncovering the underlying abilities of each individual student. One of these eons parents and students will begin a 'revolution' to expect a handful of those intelligent, intuitive teacher leaders to step up and forward and lead the way out of the quagmire of tests that do not fairly measure for the complexity of problem-solving abilities, that do not measure that all-important CREATIVITY ability and that do not measure for individual persistence needed where a student who keeps on keeping on is honored for same! And those SOLs currently legislated and mandated are the prime source for that quagmire of ineptness in measuring the real value and success of each individual student. That, Virginia, is the problem created by standarized tests. Admit it...they're much easier to compose, score by running a card through a machine and slapping a label beside our children's report cards.
Enough excellent teachers are nudged into "teaching to the test", to make and give the primary goal of real learning a magical illusion of the progress of an individual student. Progress, then, has evolved into a fallacy, a false impression of success.
"Where have all the good educators gone?" should be the song of the decade! "You didn't understand how to work that math problem, Charles, and that's why the absolute answer is
incorrect. I'll show you how to correct your mistake," the 'good educator says.
"Rachel, you memorized all of the details from a Civil War list of causes, but you weren't curious about how they affected America's cultural society afterwards, during the late 1800s into the 20th-century. Those lessons could have aided our country in World War I and II. Class, let me help you with looking far beyond a list...."

Hmmmmmmmmmm...what good is a test that ignores curiosity, ignores learning from mistakes and ignores what an individual has developed with complex problem-solving abilities, exciting creativity and just plain persistence. Those, by the way, are much higher, advanced "tests."