In the Sunday New York Times, and already online, is a great article by Alfie Kohn assessing the true impact of zero-sum testing…on students, on culture, on what and how we teach. A few choice quotes:
“A school’s ultimate mission, apparently, is not to help everyone learn but to rig the game so that there will always be losers.”
“A consistent body of social science research shows that competition tends to hold us back from doing our best.”
I agree so deeply in the thrust of the article. I think the idea that education can be assessed by a score designed to be used for comparison and competition can break our brains – render us unable to think critically.
And I think that competition does, indeed, keep us from achieving our best. I love that the festivals I attend, from Michigan Solo & Ensemble to the World Choir Games, are not zero-sum. If everyone achieves the objective criteria, everyone receives the top ranking. And, unlike in the standardized testing numbers, our community is not looking at that outcome and saying “the adjudicators need to be tougher.” They are appreciating the high level of performance being achieved within our community.
The wider culture is not looking at scores that way. A test everyone passes is considered a poor test, not a sign of universal success. Would that we found more nuanced and personal, rather than standardized and universal, ways of measuring successful education.