There is no question that standards matter. After high school, students will be expected to know and be able to do certain things as responsible members of a democratic society. Every state has standards, and NCLB mandates regular testing to determine how many students are meeting those standards.

In our high-stakes era, test scores matter a great deal, probably far more than they should. If the tests are good predictors of future success, we can safely assume that higher test scores are good, and lower test scores are bad. But we want to develop many desirable traits in our students, only a handful of which are measurable.

Schools in Texas have taken a rather blunt approach to raising test scores: preparing students directly for the test through drills and direct exam-preparation activities. Texas has drawn a great deal of criticism for its narrow focus on tests, though some schools have also been hailed as successes for raising their scores.

But what if there were a better way to raise test scores (which matter), in a way that also develops other traits that matter (but can’t be measured by standardized tests)? Montessori schools are doing just that, according to a recent study:

Montessori education is characterized by multi-age classrooms, a special set of educational materials, student-chosen work in long time blocks, a collaborative environment with student mentors, no grades and tests, and individual and small group instruction in academic and social skills. More than 5,000 schools in the United States, including 300 public schools, use the Montessori method, according to background material for the study.

A Montessori education creates solid citizens who perform at least as well academically — and sometimes better — as their public school counterparts.

…Montessori children also responded much more positively to questions like “people at my school care about each other.” And they felt more positive about school and their peers, and about their school as a community.

In addition, all the Montessori children responded to social problems in a positive, assertive way, Lillard said. Take the example of a child cutting in front of another child in line. The Montessori-trained children were “more willing to confront positively compared with the public school children who were more likely to ignore it or engage in retaliatory behavior,” she said.

When tested on academics, the Montessori 5-year-olds scored better on early reading and math than did their counterparts, and the 12-year-olds did as well as the traditional school children. link

Pressure to improve performance can be a good thing. Principals and teachers can be motivated, to some extent, by accountability requirements like those in NCLB. But too much pressure can result in a shifting-the-burden dymanic, in which test scores are improved at the expense of other, more desirable student characteristics, such as enjoyment of literature and divergent critical thinking.

We need to see standardized tests as diagnostic tools that tell us what to work on, and look for broader measures of school performance. We need to develop tests that predict more than a student’s socioeconomic status – tests that are valid indicators of what a student knows and can do. Only when we have this kind of assessment and accountability system will we create the positive pressure that will drive the kind of education system we want our children to have.

Previously: “Bubble Kids” and Dilemmas of Accountability