TRANSCRIPT: What Standardized Tests Don't Measure - Nikki Adeli

Here is the full text and audio of Nikki Adeli’s talk titled ‘What Standardized Tests Don’t Measure’ at TEDxPhiladelphia conference.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

So, my name is Nikki Udeli, I’m a junior at the Science Leadership Academy, and today I want to start my story by where it actually starts.

It started in the 80s in Iran, and it was during the Iran versus Iraq war where my parents were pursuing their college education. And during the time of the war, they couldn’t pursue it because either the university that they were going to wasn’t up to par, or the university they were going to was closed.

So, they took it upon themselves that they had to immigrate from Iran. And the reason why they immigrated to America was because they knew that if, when they had started a family, this would be an opportunity for their kids to have a quality public education that would prepare them for their career down the line.

So, they picked America, and out of all 50 states, and out of all 19,355 cities, they picked a small town in Mississippi. And that town was Starkville, home to the Mississippi State University Bulldogs. And once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog.

And I must urge how small Starkville really was, there wasn’t really a mall, I mean the mall that I considered was a Walmart super center. And there weren’t many distractions as a child, the really only things I focused on was school and soccer.

And you would think that if there aren’t many distractions, that there would be a quality school in this town. And as much as I love Mississippi, this is where I learned to ride my bike, where I learned to fall off my bike, and where I grew up.

And I, whenever someone asks me where are you from, I always say I’m from Mississippi.

But the one thing that I questioned, that I didn’t have the opportunity to have in Mississippi, was the ability to critically think. And I know that there were classes, like mentally gifted classes, except all of my peers didn’t have the opportunity to be in that class with me, because you had to go through a test that said you were mentally gifted, so you were in this exclusive class.

And even in this class, we were taught to critically think through Snafu’s puzzles and 24 math games, and as fun as those were, and the incentive to do well was you got a Hershey Kiss or a Jolly Rancher at the end, I mean I did well because I liked candy, but I really wanted to learn how to critically think in the subjects that someday down the line I would end up pursuing, like math, like science, and like reading.

And the first encounter that I came across this was in the sixth grade. So in the sixth grade, we did a whole unit on the frog. And my teacher said at the beginning of the quarter that if I wanted to dissect a frog, I had to go through a test. And I knew that I had to do well on this test, because every day when I went home from school, I always saw on TV that people like Hilary Duff were dissecting frogs, so I had to dissect a frog.

And I asked my teacher what the skills were to do well on this test, and she got down on my level and she told me, and she grinned really big and said, you need to memorize vocabulary words, and you need to memorize the parts of the frog.

And at this moment, I came across the question of what did it really mean to learn, because neither of the two times that she had brought it up said you need to learn about the frog, you need to learn the vocabulary words.

And it was exactly this that took me onto this adventure of what was the potential for kids in these towns, because they were said to be geographically disadvantaged. Even though you were geographically disadvantaged, did it really mean that you had to stop the potential to go on and be competitive on a national level if you were geographically disadvantaged?

Concept Of Competition

And it didn’t make sense to me. And so I went out to seek out this question and I came across the concept of competition. And this concept of competition was on a national level. And many times you hear that, I mean, America is very powerful as a country, but you always hear that we are competing with other countries, and it’s countries like South Korea, for example, and that if we want to do well, we need to do something like people who are second in education.

So this is Kim Ki-hoon. Kim Ki-hoon is an English teacher in South Korea. Now, what makes Kim Ki-hoon different is that his salary is $4 million a year. You don’t hear an English teacher in America getting $4 million a year. And what he does is that he runs a cram school in Seoul, South Korea, and it sounds exactly what it sounds like.

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So he does test teachings to prepare kids to do well on their university exam. And that’s the goal for kids in South Korea, because their way of becoming successful and to doing well in their country and to possibly come to America is to do well on this exam. So that’s their goal.

So from a young age, they’re taught to do well on tests, and that tests matter, and that if they want to do something in life, they have to do well on these tests.

Another country that also is going in that type of direction is Iran, more closer to home for me. And for the past two summers, I’ve had the opportunity to go to Iran and to really observe the education system in Iran and get to talk to students. And to get some background on what the Iranian education system is like, specifically in high school, is that your first three years are catered to a major that you declare in your ninth grade year. So whether that’s math, whether that’s biology, social science, what have you.

And then your fourth year is dedicated to doing well on the university exam. And what they do is that they give you a multitude of tests to make sure that you do well on that university exam. And when I got to talk to all these kids who I was teaching at one of the English schools, is that they kept calling me lucky.

They kept saying, Nikki, shomohay lihoshansin, which in English means you’re lucky. And I sat back and I asked them, I said, well, why do you think I’m lucky? And they said, because the things like volleyball that we do and playing the violin, that doesn’t count towards what we actually apply to when it comes to applying to colleges.

Because in Iran, the way you get accepted to a top university is based on your national ranking on a test. And little did they know that during the time that I was having this conversation with them, which was last summer, they didn’t know that in Philadelphia specifically, there were budget cuts — budget cuts that specifically targeted arts and music and after school clubs.

And when I realized this, I said, well, if there are these types of things that are being cut, universities and other outside programs have to focus on the test, because that’s all that’s left. And we as a country, we don’t focus on creating a good test taker, at least that’s what I think.

I mean, the value and the purpose of schools is to grow a citizen. And the citizen is to be a multitude of personalities. It’s if someone’s open-minded, knowledgeable, and someone who in the long run can give back to their community.

However, the way I see it is that this is not the way we’re going, because the majority of what we’re funding is to testing and to make sure testing comes into play, and which I’ll touch on later.

And what I want to talk on is why I actually ended up doing this TED Talk. So when I first heard the theme of the new workshop of the world, the first thing I heard was workshop. And when I heard workshop, I thought of a birdhouse.

Concept Of Birdhouse

Now the concept of a birdhouse to me is that you build a birdhouse to grow and to nurture and to hope that one day those birds will make your birdhouse their own home. I see schools the same way, is to grow and to nurture these young minds into the future leaders of tomorrow and to grow them into citizens.

However, if we are as diverse as Philadelphia is and as diverse as the country we are, why are we putting kids into standards to reach for them to then fulfill any sort of potential they might have?

And it’s this that confuses me, because 44% of students in schools right now don’t even feel a sense of self-worth. And it’s this that we always applaud, quirkiness and individuality, and this concept of individualization that we aim for as a country, that you’re allowed to think outside of the box, and you’re allowed to speak up in class, but we never advocate for it.

And specifically this. So I talked about funding, and when it comes to funding, the first thing on top of my mind is governmental programs. And if you see here, I probably find print, but I’ll read it for you.

So one of the parts of this fact sheet says, your state can win this grant that will only help students out-compete workers around the world, but also to fulfill their God-given potential. So this is saying, if you do well on the test, we will give you funding to then fulfill this God-given potential.

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So you would assume that it would actually be the other way around, if God is giving you this potential. Then… And then later on, you see that reforms, actually, on the bottom of it says, well, this actually helps you compete on a global level. It will help you out-compete any worker in this entire world.

And then again, this goes back to the concept of what is our goal in the first place? Are we trying to out-compete any worker in the world, and is this the way to do it? Is it to do it in a way that we suit ourselves to a system that doesn’t even have the same goal as we’re aiming for?

And I like this quote by Benjamin Franklin, it’s, by failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail. Now, I know that the intent of these programs is, we’re preparing you to do well in this world. But putting a Scantron sheet in front of me, and putting a pencil in front of me, and saying that if this test defines who you are, that’s only preparing you to do well on tests in the long run.

Multiple times, we hear policymakers and politicians say, we want our students to do well, so they can take over our spots one day, and to come up with policies to improve our society and the global economy. However, not even once are students in class, in boardrooms, making decisions about their own education.

So what makes you think…

So what makes you think that now, if we’re not making our own policies, and actually even giving our voice to create these own policies that affect us personally, that it will happen in the long run? And it is that thing that bothers me.

And it is certain things that paralyze students’ minds, and these creative and innovative minds that come from all over, that paralyze us, and that defines us. And that thing is testing. And I don’t want to say that tests are bad, because I’m not actually saying tests are bad. I’m saying the concept of what tests have become is bad. It’s magnified, and it’s become a curriculum that our aim is to do well on testing.

However, the first reason why we implemented tests is for our students to do well in the world. And I list all these negative effects, however, these types of things that tests have become actually helped me get to Philadelphia.

So what happened was that in 2009, I came to visit my sister for Christmas break. And during Christmas break, my sister and I are pretty evil, I would say, because we tricked my mother to move me to Philadelphia.

And my mom was like, okay, fine, it’s important, because when Nikki was young, her sister went off to college, so they need to grow some sister bond. We’ll stay for a semester.

No. So what my sister and I ended up doing is we found my mother a job. And the stay became permanent. And so time went by, and it came to the time of high school.

So when I got the list of high schools that I was accepted to, the one that stood out to me was SLA, Science Leadership Academy. And what intrigued me about this school was that it, one, not only made me responsible for my own learning, but it also gave me choices.

And what intrigued my mom about this school was that this was the reason why she had came to America in the first place, is that they didn’t abide by the system that the country was going in, but it created its own path, and that students would be able to form different types of learning skills and self-development to move in the direction of where they wanted their career to go.

And if it’s anything that SLA has really given to me, it’s two things in particular. It’s time and belief. And specifically, I want to talk about a program that’s in SLA. So SLA has this time allocated during the week for their students in the 10th and 11^th grade to go anywhere in the city they’d like and to interact with their community.

And what you do is you form some sort of internship or some sort of volunteer work. I personally formed a partnership with Penn Medicine. And with Penn Medicine, what I do is, right now, I’m developing a software that will ease the outpatient process in hospitals to make it a more faster and easier process for the outpatients to get home easier and to be back with their families.

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And I’m not the only one making dramatic changes in their communities. So then there’s Nomi. Nomi’s a peer of mine, a close friend of mine as well, and Nomi works with the Media Mobilizing Project. She’s a student columnist, and specifically, her column is part of a movement that’s pushing for equitable public schools.

And then there’s Winn. Winn is part of the public workshop. And as a part of his team, he goes out to different parts of the city and creates these new and awesome different playgrounds, types like benches, and it’s these types of things that got him out into his community and other students as well to really interact with their community.

And I know that as an SLA student, as a teenager in Philadelphia, I come from a very diverse city. And I know I’m not the only one that wants to make this type of change as a teenager. And I know that teenagers want to find their mark. I’m sure many of you know how hard your teenage years were, because they were, and I know because I’m a teenager.

And the one thing we want to know, as one of the things we want to know, is that we’re making some sort of change, and that we’re making our mark into this world, and we want to be prepared to make our mark in this world.

And if you realize what Nomi and I and Winn have all done, we’ve done all these magnificent projects in our community, and none of it involved a number two pencil or a Scantron sheet. All it took was a little bit of belief and a little bit of time. And that’s two of the biggest things that I have gotten from SLA that I truly appreciate.

And I know that I want to make this a bigger thing. So as a Philadelphia Youth Commissioner, I’m moving in a direction where I’m creating a resolution, and a resolution that will help mandate these types of internships and an opportunity for high schools across the city to have the opportunity to go into places like city banks, and hospitals, and cupcake shops, and what have you. Something that will prepare them for the real world, because on my own, I can’t change a whole curriculum.

So what I’m going to do is I’m going to work with my resources, and I’m going to help create this real world application. And I want other peers across the city to have the same opportunity as I have at SLA, and is that to apply what you learn in school to the outside world, because that is what grows a citizen, and that is what’s going to prepare us to be the future leaders of tomorrow.

And I like this quote by Director Steve McQueen, and it’s – “School was painful for him because so many beautiful people didn’t achieve what they could achieve because no one believed in them.”

And I want this, I want this, my entire talk to have some sort of call to action. And so as a city, I’d like to call this to action, and as adults in this room, as many community leaders as you all are, and to anybody watching as well, is that I would love for adults and community leaders to really believe in this generation in Philadelphia right now, because it’s a matter of our belief that we know that we can accomplish something.

And it’s that that I would love for people to set high expectations for teenagers, and set high standards, but to help us along the way, because our teenage years are the years that we’re going to fail, and the years that we’re going to make mistakes, but we need a mentor beside us.

And many times, as I’ve said today, is that many politicians and policy makers and any adult has said, we want our students to be the future leaders of tomorrow, but how about making them the present leaders, the leaders of today? And the only way you’re going to do that is by investing into the present. And if you are to invest into the present, I rest assure you, the future will take care of itself.

Thank you.