My motivations for becoming an English Major were simple: I could read and discuss literature daily and it was as far away from math and science, specifically numbers, as I could get. Numbers are not my strength; my math skills are severely limited to simple addition and subtraction. Much to my chagrin, I was enlightened about the influence of numbers by an event regarding college-ready policies in the classroom hosted by the New America Foundation.
The keynote speaker, Jack Markell, the Governor of Delaware, as well as the panelists, Joel Vargas and Elisabeth Barnett, discussed the importance of bringing college into the high school classroom and changing curricula and school policy to ensure that students are best prepared for the rigor of the college classroom. All three individuals agreed on the importance of standardized testing and GPA to measure college readiness, but included the importance of implementing a diversified array of tests.
Although these different tests have different means of presentation and indicate different metrics, each test measures success through statistics and scores – marking the high influence of numbers in America’s education systems. Although the test might change, the means of measuring success does not. Each individual was in agreement that no single test can determine success, but GPA is the best measure implemented at the moment to determine a student’s potential success rate in college.
The universality of numbers plays into the high level of numbers in school; it’s easy to group large students together and have students fall under subsets of measures of success, but students shouldn’t fall under categories. This only reduces students to a number, rather than allowing their unique characteristics to predict their future success as college students. Instead, students should be individuals, not part of a group.
I agree that test scores and GPA are indicators of success, but I disagree that they are the only adequate ways to measure success. I think that success is more than a GPA; student motivation, determination, and will to succeed are also measures of success. Combining qualitative and quantitative measures to predict success rates would allow individuals to have a unique identity in schools rather than be labeled by a number and generic category.
Rethinking education is gaining traction in the 21st century on the basis that classrooms haven’t changed in several decades. Why aren’t measures of success being rethought as well? Tests scores and numbers have continually defined students in the past, isn’t it time for a shift in schools to make students individuals rather than numbers?
Elizabeth Kennard, CER Intern