Commentary: No Tests In Rogers, Bentonville? It Could Be A Good Thing

All the cool stuff happens now that I am out of high school.

Students get to take phones to school and, at least in Rogers and Bentonville, there won't be semester exams.

Well, mostly, there won't be any. If you are one of the kids in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes, you'll have to take an exam.

Still, that's a lot kids who won't have to take finals. The down side? No getting out of school early because you kept a high grade all semester.

Kids will have to do their classwork if they want to pass -- no more goofing off until the end, cramming and passing the final test.

That's the theory. We will see how it works.

I see some positives in the plan. I have nieces and nephews who suffer from test anxiety. They knew their stuff, but when the grades came back, they did poorly on the tests.

My older niece often resorted to the "the answer is always B" theory when taking multiple choice tests. The kid is plenty smart -- she is operating two or three businesses -- but she constantly struggled with math. I think that problem -- by osmosis perhaps -- carried over to test-taking in other courses.

Anyway, she approached test-taking by saying she always answered "B." I doubt that was entirely true, but you just never know.

Another positive is, one would think, kids will actually have to do class work.

Notice I did not say homework.

I really thought homework had gone by the wayside at some points as the kids came up through school.

"Got any homework?" they would be asked.

"Did it in class," was the response.

Then in a year or so, one might see them slaving away with a book and computer trying to do homework.

I think kids would learn and retain more if they learned over the long-term vs. the short, cramming term.

Which raises the question: why, then, are they having to take so many tests to determine how smart -- or not -- they are? Occasionally, results go up. Then they don't, and everyone is concerned the kids aren't learning.

I don't mean to be flippant, but maybe they tried the "answer is always B" plan?

Having some way to measure what kids know is important. It provides an idea of how teachers need to proceed to help them learn. However, if kids are struggling with regular tests, what's to keep them from struggling with standardized tests?

And every teacher I know acknowledges they spend as much time as possible "teaching to the test" to improve grades on standardized exams. That time is lost for teaching other things.

One thing about this no-test plan: I think parents will really need to be involved with their children's education. Again, according to what teachers tell me, that will be a change of pace from some parents.

It is hard for me to imagine telling a teacher a child's education is entirely her problem, but, again, that's what I am told.

My parents were very involved. I remember well the moans and groans when I was learning some version of "new math." But they were part of it, and never told the teacher it was her problem.

Parental involvement will be important making sure homework is done, and helping make sure the kids are working as hard as they can in class.

It will be interesting to see if the no semester exam plan works.

Only time will tell.

•••

The Washington Post reported this week some parts of the country have a shortage of young people ages 24 to 30. This is not an issue for Northwest Arkansas.

As a matter of fact, census numbers show that between the years of 1970 and 2010, the age 24-30 population grew by 130 percent or more in the northwest corner.

Other parts of the state didn't fare as well. Most of the counties along the state's eastern border lost 20 percent or more in that age group, and the southern tier of counties didn't do much better.

Why is Northwest Arkansas preferable?

Jobs, no doubt, and probably that somewhat nebulous quality of life. That seems to be what attracts young people, and keeps them in an area.

So, it would seem, we need to educate kids whether we test them or not, and provide them jobs and places to be entertained if we want to continue to be a vibrant region of the country.

Quite the challenge for all of us.

Commentary on 08/28/2014

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