The state of Illinois has dropped its last required K-12 writing exam. According to a story in the LA Times that was originally filed by a Chicago Tribune reporter, Illinois public school students no longer have to write anything on a final exam. Insufficient money to conduct and grade the exams was cited as motivating the Illinois decision.The Land of Lincoln is not the only state to cut back on inconvenient, "expensive" testing. The Times article cites recent decisions in Oregon and Missouri in which written tests were either scaled back or completely eliminated. Remarkably, an effective, essential means of evaluating a student's articulative ability has been cast aside. Testing is now completely in the throes of test manufacturers, compliant education administrators, and others who assert data analysis provides a sufficient window into an individual's "performance." That self-interest may impact this current educational dogma just doesn't enter the dialogue.
Incredibly, the development of clear written expression is disappearing from American public schools. Replacing skillful writing is constant, data-driven assessment, in which children are treated as if they are in K-12 education's equivalent of an intensive care ward. While young students will be "test ready" from a too-early age, they will be barely prepared to articulate any ideas they might have. That this phenomenon is happening in a state with a proud intellectual heritage, a land that spawned John Dewey, Jane Addams, Richard Wright, and Abraham Lincoln himself, is a very dispiriting sign of the times.
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