Won’t stand for SATs

Marisa O’Neil

On the surface, Corona del Mar High School senior Amanda Rubenstein

seems like the last student who would lobby against standardized

testing and traditional grading systems.

The 17-year-old has a grade-point average above a 4.0. She takes

four Advanced Placement classes. She performed well on her SATs.

But for her senior project, she is lobbying against all the things

in which she excels, hoping to shift educators’ focus off test scores

and onto teacher quality. On Wednesday night, she held a rally to

drum up support among students, parents and teachers.

“A lot of people say that students are lazy or don’t want to

learn,” she said. “I think the opposite is true. They want to learn.

But things are shoved down their throats and they’re not allowed to

think analytically or critically.”

At Wednesday night’s meeting on the Corona del Mar campus, about

two dozen people came to hear Amanda talk about what she called “the

systematic breakdown of the academic institution.”

Her project started as a rally against the SATs and the importance

placed on them by schools, teachers and college admissions boards. As

she researched the subject, she said, a “light bulb” went off in her

head and she decided to tackle a bigger issue.

Many teachers, she argues, don’t follow California’s standards for

teaching. Rather than encourage learning, Amanda said, they require

regurgitation of facts and figures.

Claire Ratfield, a Lincoln Elementary School teacher twice

certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards,

spoke about the need for progressive teaching techniques in the

classroom.

In a speech titled “Paradigm Stick,” Ratfield said that the world

is changing, but classrooms have changed little since the early 20th

century.

“Amanda’s angle is not just the SATs, but that there’s no

meaning-centered teaching,” Ratfield said. “It’s all memorization and

facts. SATs are like ‘Jeopardy,’ and we’re not doing ‘Jeopardy.’

We’re trying to build students who are thinkers.”

“I have two freshmen who are just starting out in high school,”

said parent Jody Young, who was at the meeting. “I’m curious what a

senior who’s been through the SATs would have to say about them.”

Amanda hopes to have future meetings for the organization, which

she has called “No Child Left Behind.” Though it shares a name with

the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which relies heavily on

standardized testing as a barometer of school success, it has a

different approach.

Encouraging discussion and thought and analysis in classrooms

instead of relying on tests and traditional grades will help students

learn and retain material, Amanda said. When teachers give a test or

a reading assignment and then sit in the back of the class not

interacting with students, she argues, they’re not doing their job.

“We’re targeting a system that allows a teacher not to teach or

allows a student who wants to learn and is struggling, to fail,”

Amanda said.

Though she intends to study law or international business in

college, Amanda said she is “passionate” about education. Corona del

Mar High School has incredible teachers, she said, but more attention

has to be to paid to ones whose students regularly perform poorly.

Consistently bad test scores and grades may be a better indicator

that the teacher, not the students, needs more work. Amanda hopes to

give students, parents and community members a voice to speak out for

educational reforms.

“Her heart is so rich, her message is so real,” Ratfield said.

“She’s fighting a mythical beast that’s refusing to change. And she’s

right. In some way, the system has failed.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].