Hands-On Experience by Gary

Hands-On Experience by Gary - June 2015 Scholarship Essay

Gary Blanks II

Assessments in schools have recently dominated all performance statistics and analysis. Standardized tests are the primary culprit of these, but they aren’t truly the best way to assess performance of a school. These forms of assessments are ones that are not looked forward to by schools and are just procedures that “must be done”. They also take away lots of time from the learning experience. The Council of Great City Schools (CGCS) says that between pre-K and 12th grade, students take on an average of 113 standardized tests (pbs.org). Also during arguably the most difficult year in education for a student, 11th grade, the CGCS said that 15% of class time was spent taking those tests.

A more efficient form of assessment and my ideal form are hands-on assessments. They should give off less feeling of a test and more feeling of actual performance in multiple areas. Assessments should have students doing and thinking about activities as if they were truly in the field they are studying. If students are stuck inside a room for two hours writing and essay or filling in multiple choice bubbles, they don’t give the same effect as if someone was actually doing or seeing what is happening in the question.

For example, assessments for English should have students write a poem or play, and assessments for math (in this case, geometry) could have students go outside and hit a ball, measure the appropriate lengths, and determine what angle the ball landed. Assessment like these are more hands-on and let the students see what’s truly going on and help them prepare solve relevant problems in the future. They are more engaging to the students and don’t pressure students as much into the feeling of “testing” like standardized tests and other assessments do.

Every step of the assessment, like finding the various measurements of the ball’s trajectory, could count towards the final grade for each student. Just as in any career when they get older, students need to have hands-on experience to truly learn what they are doing. Hands-on assessments are my most ideal from of assessments because they don’t pressure students into the feeling of “testing” and they introduce them to direct real-world problem solving.