Yesterday I proctored the PSAT test for our Upper School students. Before the test began, one of the students said, “I had to practice how to do this type of test.” It got me thinking about standardized testing and how little of it we do here at St. Paul’s.
In fact, if it was up to us we wouldn’t do any at all. Unfortunately, there are certain outside entities that only use this form of data. For example, most colleges require a SAT score. So because we want our students to be able to ace any form of test they come across (including standardized tests) we try to expose them to all types.
So much of our society relies on this form of comparison data. If we want to compare our students to other schools and prove that we have a superior academic product, we must use the same tests. This, coupled with the need to introduce standardized testing, is why we give our 4th grade a standardized test in May. If you have ever seen our students’ scores compared to Bellingham Public Schools or compared to all the other 4th graders in Washington, you would see that we are producing superior students.
This is proven by our standardized test scores and many, many, many other non-standard experiences.