This coming week, all of our students will be taking standardized tests offered by the Educational Records Bureau. The tests take time to administer and will require us to modify our regular schedule for the next four days. Like many other things in the world, views on standardized testing has become quite polarized with advocates and opponents filling op-ed pieces in attempts to persuade schools to either embrace or eschew their administration.

At The Beech Hill School, standardized tests provide useful feedback for students, parents, and the institution. However, these tests are not the only, or even the most important, data point used in assessing learning, growth, curriculum, and delivery. In just four days of testing, however, the battery of assessments provides such a broad snapshot, it is hard to imagine getting rid of this tool. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to spend time in Skills classes discussing standardized test taking strategies.

Just this week, Harvard University has announced that they would, again, begin to require standardized testing, like the SAT and ACT, in the admission process. They are following the lead taken by Brown, Dartmouth, and MIT. When big name universities move in this direction, other schools follow. So, it is entirely likely that by the time our students are applying to colleges, standardized testing will be more broadly required than it is today. Practice taking assessments, like the ERBs will only make things like the SATs and ACTs less daunting.

In the end, BHS will continue to use standardized testing in ways that support our programs and our students. To remove standardized testing from our cache of tools used to improve student and institutional outcomes would not be wise. Going forward, we will continue to integrate test preparation and testing as an important piece of a very broad and robust educational program.