Amendment 3 not good for education

Amendment 3 is on the ballot in November. If approved by voters, it will impose a standards-based performance evaluation system for teachers, the majority of which shall be based upon "quantifiable student performance data..." (sos.mo.gov/elections/2014petitions/2014-024.pdf). Yes, there are pros to standardized testing, but the cons are damning.

Besides the prohibitive cost, which will reduce funding available for classroom resources, there are plenty of other negatives. Amendment 3 mandates standardized testing to measure teacher performance. The results will be used to reward and punish teachers. They are, at best, an imprecise measure of educator effectiveness. Teachers do not have complete control of their students' environment.

The use of standardized testing may lead to students becoming skilled test takers but fails to prepare them for productive adult lives. When test results are vital to a teacher's livelihood (the explicit purpose of Amendment 3), this puts enormous pressure on educators to produce good results, often to the detriment of students.

In addition, standardized testing assesses only a small portion of that which makes education meaningful. According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD., qualities that standardized tests cannot measure include "creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, [and] integrity."

Amendment 3 is a constitutional amendment. The Missouri constitution is very difficult to change. If this measure passes, and is found to be unworkable, Missourians have very little recourse.

Please vote "no" on Amendment 3.

ESTHER BOHNERT, Jackson