Teacher's Role in Assessment of Children

The Governor of California’s recent decision to force all students into Algebra in their 8th grade year is a noble endeavor; I believe our curriculum should be rigorous and students should be made to broaden their minds with instruction that paces academic goals so that learning is always an aspiration, but never an end. Algebra is a problem-solving tool; like a hammer is a carpenter's tool, algebra is the mathematician's tool for solving problems. Algebra has applications to every human enterprise. People who say that they will never use algebra are people who do not know algebra. Knowledge of algebra can give you more power to solve problems and accomplish what you want in life.

However, learning Algebra is a bit like learning to read and write. If you truly learn algebra, you will use it to its fullest extent, but not until you have experiences over the years to guide that use properly. Using it and learning it are developmental in nature; it takes time and maturity to do both. The maturity rate for children varies, especially during adolescence. Teachers should be the ones to determine a student’s ability to undertake an Algebra course, not politicians. Forcing some students into the rigor of Algebra could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and turns them off to school. With our national dropout average at 30%, we cannot afford to lose a child’s interest in education at such an early age.

I believe in the idea of No Child Left Behind and the goal of Algebra instruction in 8th grade. But to expect these ideals to apply to every child at the exact same time in each child’s life is saying that lives are not unique and that human beings are alike. We are all different in from one another, learning and growing at varying levels throughout our life. I do not believe we should be placing demands on student learning without the expertise of the educators in the schools making sound academic articulation decisions based on their knowledge of the child, the child’s previous learning, the child’s maturity for such rigor, and the child’s previous assessment results. To do otherwise is ludicrous and unproductive, not to mention inhumane.