The more standardized education has become – and that trend remains strong – the worse our education has become. The more that administrators and legislators attempt to address education reform on a national or even a state level, the more serious the problems have become. Education is not conducive to standard approaches in every school, region, state, or district. The state should be the absolute highest level of control, though local districts should be the primary deciders on curricula, materials, and assessments. After all, they decide who is to teach, so they should decide what is to be taught.
Standardized testing is problematic in multiple ways, primarily in the power and control ceded to testing companies. But such tests are not fair and accurate indicators of knowledge and skill level. Timed testing penalizes slower workers/processors, and certain district practices can motivate teachers to teach to the test and affect a district’s curricular decisions. In addition, such tests offer a “moment in time” snapshot of student performance, not a reliably comprehensive indication of student capabilities.
The migration to online education has resulted in extreme curricular/course standardization, usually placing the responsibility for course content, assignments, exam content, and writing topics – as well as text selections – with a small group of people and sometimes even just one person. The elimination of curricular variety and the disallowance of faculty developing their own courses is having drastic and disastrous effects not only on what is being taught but, just as importantly, the enthusiasm with which it is being taught.
Obviously, a faculty is comprised of multiple people with different backgrounds, different preferences, and different styles of teaching. To demand that all teach predesigned courses based on the choices and preferences of one or a few people makes for disinterested teaching and less effective interaction.