Commentary: We have multiple choices on school testing

The testing frenzy that has for so long plagued the nation’s schooling systems is analogous to taking an ailing person’s temperature again and again in the hope that such repeated efforts will have a mitigating affect on the measurement.

Testing in its current standardized form began as a measure of school reform but eventually came to be thought of and practiced as the reform itself. Instead of focusing on testing, perhaps we can now put the emphasis on teaching.

After all, since its inception, testing in American schools has been a controversial practice. At the turn into the 20th century, French psychologist Alfred Binet developed a standardized test of intelligence.

It eventually evolved into today’s version of the I.Q. test and became officially known as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. By the time of World War I, standardized testing was becoming an ubiquitous part of American schooling.

But testing is not synonymous with learning. To learn most effectively, students require a curriculum that is relevant, involves them as active participants and emphasizes critical thinking (i.e., problem-solving skills).

Testing need not and should not be eliminated, but it does need to be minimized, and then rethought and re-calibrated to the learning outcomes that reflect a meaningful and life-enhancing curriculum.

Mark Twain once remarked that he never let his schooling interfere with his education. We as teachers, parents and community members should not allow testing to interfere with, but instead, complement the educational process.

BEN MILES lives in Huntington Beach.