Schools Competency - Essay Example

School’s Competency It is a pervasive perception that test scores do indeed stand to be the viable indicators as to the quality of education and teaching in a school. However, in a pragmatic context, evaluating the competency of a school merely on the bases of test scores is not only a narrow approach towards gauging the quality of education in a school, but is also a belief that happens to be utterly counterproductive. Tests tend to predict the academic performance of the students in a school under a standardized test environment and format.

The thing that needs to be understood is that performing in a test happens to be a skill in itself and not all students happen to be good at evincing the right responses in a test, irrespective of the fact that many of them actually happen to be conversant with the academic discipline on which they are being evaluated (Corwin & Schneider, 2005). Tests are mostly conducted in an environment that happens to be loaded with stress and tension, and it is practical to expect that not all students may be able to cope up with such a format.

Hence test scores actually depict as to how good a school is at preparing its students to perform in a test, rather than reflecting on a school’s ability to impart knowledge. The other thing is that tests tend to ascertain mainly the academic provenance of the students in a school and that too in a very narrow context. Tests do happen to ignore the varied salient aspects of education like imagination, creativity, proficiency in social skills, leadership ability, levels of performance in sports, skills in arts and music (Donlevy, 2007).

Hence, to judge the competency of a school merely on the bases of test scores that are not only utterly narrow in their approach towards ascertaining academic competence, but do leave many important aspects of academics untouched and ignored is certainly wrong and faulty. The competency of a school should be judged on the bases of its larger capacity for facilitating and promoting the overall personality development of its students, which happens to have varied additional aspects besides academics.

Many experts believe that tests happen to be the most popular way of evaluating as to how successful a school has been in imparting the targeted academic skills and competencies to its students. The thing that such experts have to understand is that it is high time that the academicians in the nation drop a narrow minded approach towards education and develop an idea of education that is more holistic and inclusive of the abilities and skills left untouched by the conventional tests (Bonilla & Bonsteel, 1997).

Thereby, tests are in no way a good and acceptable indication of the competency of a school. The right approach towards ascertaining the competency of a school will be one that is broad based and that takes into consideration a large array of factors. ReferencesBonilla, C.A., & Bonsteel, A. (1997). A Choice for our Children. New York: ICS Press. Corwin, R.G., & Schneider, E.J. (2005). The School Choice Hoax. Westport, CT: Praeger. Donlevy, J. (2007). Is there Life beyond Test Score and NCLB?

What Teachers Know. International Journal of Instructional Media, 34(3), 237-238.