what tests can't measure

From Calvin and Hobbes:

Miss Wormwood: Calvin, your test was an absolute disgrace!  It's obvious you haven't read any of the material.  Our first president was NOT Chef Boy-Ar-Dee and you ought to be ashamed to have turned in such preposterous answers!

Calvin (after pausing to look incredulously at his paper): I just don't test well.

Last week my kids took standardized achievement tests.  This year was the same as any other year, except this year was our first to homeschool, so every day as soon as they closed the van door I peppered them with questions.  "How was it?  How do you think you did?  What was hard?  What was easy?"  I'm always interested in how my children are doing, but this year I could feel my interest heightened because now I am the main person in charge of their learning.  In some ways, that's just a little bit frightening.

But it's also been a good time to remind myself to have right thinking--biblical thinking--about standardized testing.  It seems obvious that these tests can be a fairly good measure of academic achievement.  However, there are several things they cannot tell us, and I wonder if at times I place higher value on them than I ought.  Here are a few things that standardized tests cannot measure:

1. They do not measure whether or not our children have truly acquired wisdom.

James 3:13 "Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom."

According to Websters dictionary, wisdom is "the right use or exercise of knowledge, the choice of laudable means, and of the best means to accomplish them...the exercise of sound judgment in avoiding evils or attempting good."  By that definition, wisdom is knowledge applied with sound moral judgment.  A child can acquire tremendous intellectual ability and yet not be wise in application.  As a mother, I must constantly be watching to see how my children are applying the knowledge they have to daily living, and helping them to learn what it means to think biblically about the information they are now putting into practice.

2. They do not reveal whether or not our children are developing character.

Once again, the verse in James instructs us that the fruit of wisdom are deeds done in humility.  It is very easy to become conceited about what we know, until we realize the tremendous responsibility we have been given to use that knowledge to serve God and others.  Wisdom shows itself in patience, kindness, selflessness, and many other virtues that can't be measured except by watching how a child's actions reveal their view of God, others, and themselves.

3. They do not measure our value as teachers or our children's value as precious and loved by God.

This hits too close to home.  I was the sort of student who did well in school and tested well.  What I didn't realize at the time was how much of my sense of value was bound up in my grades and test scores.  That carried me through high school and college, but there did come a day when no one cared anymore what kind of grades I had earned, or what my ACT score had been (if they had cared in the first place).  But then there was a little life in my arms who depended on me daily for love, nourishment, and good character in order to ensure survival.  If we are finding our own or our children's value in test scores, we certainly are not looking high enough.  God has given each of us intrinsic value as men and women created in His image.  The child who is not able to be tested due to cognitive deficiencies is just as precious as the one who scores off the charts.  And what we do as our children's teachers can never be measured with pen and paper.

So what to do with standardized tests?  Should I just toss them out the window and assume they are unimportant?  Of course not.  But I will...

1. Use them as a measure of strengths and weaknesses to plan our next school year. 

I already know there are places one of my children will not test strong, because we are filling in some learning gaps.  I will be hoping to see growth in that child a few years from now, and will continue looking for ideas to help shore up weaknesses.  Strengths show me how my children are uniquely gifted and how God has wired them to learn.  It is exciting to have that information in hand to use as another tool in my box to teach them next year.

2. Share them only with much discretion.

My two oldest children started at a private school, and it did not take one of them long to realize they were "smart."  From the beginning, we were careful not to feed that child's pride regarding academic ability.  It was years before I shared test scores with either child, and then only to help understand a bit of the responsibility the child had to develop areas of giftedness or partner in learning where there were lags.  There are huge temptations regarding sharing this kind of information with anyone else.  "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips," (Prov. 27:2) is a great verse to teach our children and remember ourselves.  I cringe to think how often I forget this principle either consciously or unconsciously when it comes to me or my children.

3. Remember to teach the whole child.

We have the smallest glimpse into Jesus' childhood in Luke 2.  Nowhere is it recorded how He got his education (we know it was probably quite humble because His earthly parents were not people of means but also quite complete knowing the wisdom He used in every situation He encountered), what sort of parenting techniques were used, or how He spent His free time.  But we do know "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52).  Jesus did grow intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially through his childhood.  If I aim at all four of those areas in my children's development, I will be well on my way to helping them to become the man or woman God created them to be.

4. Remember God.

He is the one we look to for the development of moral character in our children, because we know godly morals can only come about by the knowledge of His word through the work of the Spirit.  How much more can we trust Him to guide the intellectual development of the children He has given us?  Whatever my children do or become after their school years, He is the one who deserves all the glory.