What is the Purpose of School?

The national conversation about education has been focused on accountability, “college readiness,” and of course, test scores.  The condemnations of educators and schools is a loud chorus with different segments advocating some overhaul or another.  I work in schools, and have been in them most of my life.  I work at a really good school right now, and we’re on the firing line regularly. 

I find it fascinating that the public education system lacks a uniform mission. Some would say it’s about a citizens that think critically enough to sustain a free society—as the many of our founding fathers argued.  Others point to assimilation, vocation, leveling the playing field, and on and on.   Each of these justifications is worthy of debate.  Take a look around now and you’ll see these have all been lazily combined into the increasingly ambiguous term “college readiness.”  In complete defiance of all common sense and mountains of apparent data, this is boiled down even further to the almighty ACT/SAT scores.

It’s obvious why the political system, where the primary focus is on accountability—that is, bang for your buck—would look to these scores: they are readily available, seemingly objective, and if you’re not an educator, they it just seems logical: higher test scores must mean better schools, right? …..Right?.....

Wrong.  First and foremost, about 70% of all test score variation across schools is explained by socioeconomic status alone.  In other words, if you used the income level of their students, the school rankings we see would come out largely the same.  It’s not that schools don’t have an impact on students, and some are better than others.  It’s just that, using these test scores as the criteria not helpful. 

There’s more though.  Take a look at the tests and expectations to which schools are often held.  For example, ACT’s College Readiness Standards are deeply flawed when it comes to predicting how well students will do in college.  Surely, the higher the score, the better, but scoring high on ACT does not guarantee success at any level of school.  Probably even more important to this argument: students that fail to meet various college readiness bars based on these exams along regularly go on to get degrees.  Perseverance, ability to delay gratification, willingness to participate in the daily activities necessary to pass courses, family influence, perceived likelihood of success, perceived value of a degree…all of these things are important factors in college success that are not measured by these exams.  This list is far from exhaustive, and probably even lacks some of the most significant factors that affect college success.

This all brings us back to the question, what is the purpose of school?  If it’s not just about maximizing this one dimension of student performance, and it clearly is not, then we should reconsider our commitment to these exams.  The goal is learning; genuine, authentic learning.  It’s complex—really complex—to deal with and measure.  Educators generally are very good at this when it comes to individuals and small groups, but because learning itself is so complex and dependent on so may factors, it’s very difficult measure and grow the system from the top down.  This is akin to requiring all children speak their first words or take their first steps by the exact same date.

For this, there are no shortcuts, only the kind of individual, human intelligence that allows us to work others, empathize with their individual needs (whether or not they are in common with the group), and provide feedback.  Assessment performance should be supplemented with careful consideration of the factors that led to the performance, and this is true whether it’s the parent/teacher viewing a student’s marks or a prospective home-buyer evaluating a community’s school systems.