The billion-dollar problem(s) // education needs to be hacked
Personification and modern technologies can help overcome outdated systems in education and beyond
The speaker, who is an education researcher, argues against the heavy reliance on standardized assessments in the American education system. He makes the following key points:
1. The standardized testing industry is a billion-dollar industry that is used to define achievement gaps, allocate resources, and label schools as “good” or “bad.”
2. Through data visualization, he shows that the history curriculum and assessments in New York heavily focus on white male narratives, marginalizing the stories of women, non-binary individuals, and people of color.
3. Standardized assessments do not improve teacher practice or cultivate critical thinking and creativity in students. Instead, they promote rote memorization.
4. He proposes a “strategic disinvestment” in standardized testing as a form of accountability and suggests using sampling instead of testing every student repeatedly.
5. He encourages a shift in focus towards building teacher capacity, prioritizing standards over standardization, and allowing more instructional time for fostering thinkers and creators who can solve future problems.
6. He calls for the community, policymakers, and educators to hold the system accountable and divest from standardized assessments in favor of investing in a more inclusive and creative approach to education.
