A nationwide scourge is plaguing our schools, our children and their teachers. It is called high-stakes testing. It is a movement driven by tougher standards and accountability relying upon standardized testing.

High-stakes refers to statewide tests given at fixed grade levels, i.e. 4, 8 and 12. No matter how well students have been doing in school, passing these tests determines whether a student will progress onto the next grade level or graduate from high school. To make students repeat a grade or deny them a diploma on the basis of one single assessment is of great concern. Although the alleged intent of these tests is to make our schools better, in reality they squeeze out their intellectual life, aid and abet failure, and increase school dropout especially among the disenfranchised.

The curse has already begun in Maine with the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA). Although these tests are administered to all fourth-eighth- and 11th-grade students, they are not yet an absolute requirement for passage onto the next grade or for high school graduation. They are, however, part of a nationwide effort that arose out of the 1983 Nation at Risk issued by Reagan administration. Among its recommendations were “more rigorous and measurable standards, and higher expectations, for academic performance and student conduct.”

Maine like most states in the union jumped on the bandwagon to reshape its schools in the late 1980s. Then Gov. John McKernan and the state’s Legislature directed the State Board of Education to develop long-range goals and standards for its students and schools. These efforts resulted in the Maine’s Common Core of Learning, the Maine Learning Results and the Maine Educational Assessment.

The principles of the Maine Learning Results (MLR) appear attractive and encompassing as they demonstrate a sense of balance between the individual’s intellect and emotional needs with those of the society at large. They require, for instance, that each student be a creative problem solver, a collaborative and quality worker, an integrative and informed thinker, and a self-directed lifelong learner. These noble principles are misleading. They are calculated to meet the newest paradigm of business and industry.

According to this model, blue-collar workers no longer perform repetitive tasks on the assembly line. Rather they work as members of a team, using critical thinking skills to problem solve for the corporation. As they create greater efficiency for their firm, the company downsizes, and many are out of work. This mandates lifelong learning so they can be re-educated for at least eight different careers.

Although Maine’s tests are not entirely multiple choice, the purpose is to measure results based on the specific performance standard indicators for each subject and grade level stipulated in the Learning Results, not to stimulate learning. Even the more open-ended aspects of these tests are adapted from new methods of evaluating workers for this corporate paradigm.

Pressure on students from the time they enter kindergarten is severe. By getting a head start, children are expected to do well by the time they take their first assessment in fourth grade. Elementary school counselors report that many children are ridden with anxiety as they approach these tests. The stress level only intensifies as they progress through the grades. In Massachusetts, where these tests do determine whether a student passes on to the next grade level, according to the Department of Education, the school dropout rate has escalated in the past couple of years.

Teachers and school administrators feel the pressures of these tests, the scores of which are printed in the press statewide. Their jobs are on the line if their students do not improve on a yearly basis. As teachers must teach to the test, thoughtful and creative curricula are replaced by strategies that help students master each of the standard performance indicators of the MLRs.

Since teachers lose nearly two weeks of class time for the MEA and are pressured to accomplish the required curriculum, valuable programs are eliminated, such as artists in residence. These projects encouraged students of diverse backgrounds and academic strengths to explore new ways of self-expression.

Some school boards demand that exit exams be given in the eighth grade before students may enter high school, and again as a graduation requirement. Although the high school exit exam may be in the form of an exhibition project that is intended to demonstrate how effectively the student uses knowledge gained, these projects are only valuable in a manner that promotes understanding.

They are ineffective if grades are emphasized, if evaluation criteria stress right answers, if risk-taking is discouraged, and if rewards and punishment are used as controlling mechanisms. The bottom line is that students are evaluated to such an extent, that they are discouraged to become really creative, independent thinkers and risk-takers.

In order to reverse this dangerous trend, it is important for students to experience the wonder, mystery and excitement of learning. They must be active seekers of and inquisitors about knowledge instead of passively accepting information that is fed to them by teachers and other sources. They must not only master the necessary skills to read and write well, but also be able to think independently, critically and thoughtfully.

Therefore, the 1996 law “An Act to Initiate Education Reform in Maine” must be modified. The six guiding principles of the MLRs may stay intact, but the standards must remain general. The detailed performance indicators should be eliminated. Since project based learning is catching on in Maine, more effort, creativity, preparation, study and time spent with each student is required of teachers.

Furthermore, a small student-teacher ratio, frequent teacher-parent conferences in which each student is actively involved, flexible scheduling for teachers to work with one another, as well as to meet their students’ needs are mandatory for project based learning to work. For this to happen, the law must provide adequate funding for all school systems.

As a result more students will become enthusiastic about learning, the dropout rate will decrease, the economy will prosper and socially active, independent thinkers, who uphold the principles of our democratic society, will evolve.

David O. Solmitz of Waterville taught for 30 years at Madison High School.