"Standardized testing should not be emphasized as much as it is, instead schools' focus should be on average students," a Ball State alumnus said.
William Hatcher, the 2004 Outstanding Teachers College Alumnus, spoke about "What Has Become Clearer to Me About the State of Public Education" on Wednesday at the award ceremony.
The title of Hatcher's speech was based on an idea from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said "What has become clearer to you since the last time that we met?" Hatcher applied this idea to what he learned from his 40 years of experience in high school education at Kern High School District in California, he said.
Hatcher said that he is concerned about both the amount and the method of standardized testing.
"Standardized testing only measures a limited number of things," Hatcher said. "It cannot measure things such as creativity and imagination ... Rather than emphasize standardized testing, and then focusing on students at the low and high end of students, schools should also strive to reach to students in the middle of their class, said Hatcher.
Hatcher, and other administrators who he worked with, decided to do a study on these middle, average students.
"Most studies are based on grants," Hatcher said. "This means that higher and lower level students are studied and students in the middle are forgotten about."
"This results in a group of children who are not challenged. The students often say that they would realize their potential if someone would tell them that they can do more," Hatcher said. "The most important aspect of a student's education is the teachers."
"Two years of bad teaching, especially at the elementary level, leaves little chance for recovery," Hatcher said. "Elementary reading teachers are especially important."
Although Hatcher said that he did not originally think there was any silver bullet for learning, over the course of his years in education, he changed his mind.
"Studies have shown that by the time a child is 9 years old, if they can read at the correct level, other skills will come much more easily to them," Hatcher said. "Seventh grade math is based off of the student's ability to read and comprehend material, ninth grade math is based off of seventh grade math."
Though Hatcher spent all of his years in education at the same district, other people change districts throughout their teaching careers.
"There are two ways to spend a career in education," Hatcher said. "You can stay in one district, learn what you can and impact the district as much as you can, or, you can go out and go to different places and experience different things."
Though Hatcher said elementary school is where the most important core learning occurs, high school offers the a combination of education and social experiences.
"More people go back to their high school reunions than their college reunions," Hatcher said. "That has to tell you about the amount of significance people place on high school."
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