In Texas, Lots of Children Left Behind Due to a Lack of Individualized Education

To see if students absorbed classroom lessons, schools across America were given a number of measurement tools. One of the most recently popular is state-standardized assessment programs.

Seeing what has been learned in the classroom is certainly an admirable idea. Forcing kids to obtain ever higher scores on a standardized test in order to be considered ‘smart,’ conversely, is not. However, it’s what the State of Texas and its entities are doing.

Certainly, not all standardized testing is bad. Yes, you heard me right! I actually have had a positive experience with and do like some of standardized testing programs myself. Preparing for this blog, I reminisced about the standardized testing program which I had personally been a part of in Denver, Colorado called Alpass.

That test worked only because it measured what I actually had received an education in and was not attempting to punish the natural human diversity which is found throughout the learning process. Going into that test as a first and second grader, I therefore knew that receiving a ‘low score’ would not consequently trigger the end of my world as it then stood.

Having been a test I looked forward to taking, the Alpass test honestly remains one of my fond childhood memories. It was an example of an academic assessment done properly. It really was just an assessment of what had been learned in the classroom. Neither I nor other students were ever punished ultimately just for being ourselves, and our teachers were not disciplined for having students who were themselves either.

Today, it bothers me that Texas students are expected to successfully operate in a much more stressful learning environment and still successfully earn good grades, let alone achieve ever-higher test scores. I don’t have to be a teacher or even have kids of my own to see that these simultaneous circumstances actually contradict each other even for good standardized test takers. I’m also concerned that teachers get punished if students don’t achieve the ‘right’ scores.

Finally, closing down a school just because students receive low test scores ironically could create more problems, since those students would get zoned to another school and it could become overcrowded. If this other school becomes overcrowded, how will it then be able to provide students with a quality education?

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, what if American society did something else? What if we used a different-sizes-fit-different-people approach?

Every person is naturally a unique individual — individuality is apparently lost on standardized test promoters who have set ‘a score’ as the measure of all academic success, never mind grades, extenuating circumstances, or community involvement. As far as the test promoters seem to think, every student should be bubbling in exactly the same bubbles on the answer sheets to be considered a productive member of society. Difference of any kind becomes marked an error by default.

Individualized education programs were constantly being talked about in special education, an academic program in which I myself was enrolled for a learning disability. However, I think Texas and other states must recognize that all students are individuals and therefore have individual learning styles — including those students who are not doing well on their state standardized testing programs, whether they have a disability or not.

Having individualized education programs for all students is therefore an appropriate solution to the ongoing question of how to successfully educate students.