Introduction
The idea of equality is transparent in all articles of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the complex nature of people’s lives makes the concept less easy to implement. Various race- and gender-based limitations continue to exist in major parts of people’s everyday activities. One of such spheres is education, a right to which is expressed in Article 26 (United Nations, n.d.).
One can look at the unequal access to knowledge around the world and provide dozens of examples of children lacking basic supplies to go to school. Nevertheless, in developed countries, the divide in people’s access to education and its merits is also highly uneven. In this case, it is furthered by systemic racism that has been present in most industries of the state. In the United States, the problem of standardized testing can be presented as an example of a system enforcing unequal opportunities for white and non-white children as well as students belonging to different socioeconomic classes.
Human Rights Perspective
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides suggestions which countries and organizations can follow to ensure the equality of their citizens. However, it is not law, which leads to it being disregarded as a recommendation rather than a standard. The human rights perspective poses that education is among the most critical aspects that can help people reach equality (Dean, 2008).
Therefore, the idea is that learning is not only a separate goal but a stepping stone in achieving other aims and leading the fight against poverty, social inequalities, and human rights violations. According to Lee (2013), this position is crucial for moving the ideas of the United Nations forward. Nevertheless, the author also notes that an abstract idea of “education” cannot be enforced, because it could lead to the children obtaining knowledge that is unstructured and unhelpful.
Furthermore, a poorly thought-out initiative for increasing the number of people in schools can lead to the problem of unfulfilling academic achievements. An essential part of this perspective is that the declaration calls for education to be “directed to the full development of the human personality” (United Nations, n.d., Article 26, para. 1). This means that students have to obtain skills that are vital for their career and personal development, understand their interconnectedness with the world, and acknowledge other people’s opportunities and freedoms.
Education Problem
In the United States and some countries of Northern Europe, the problem of standardized tests is at the center of human rights researchers. In the US, in particular, there exists evidence that this practice does not promote equality. In contrast, standardized testing strengthens systemic racism and creates inequalities in children’s access to education as well as school ratings. The essence of the problem lies in the fact that most schools now enforce standardized testing as the means of assessing students’ college applications. Moreover, teachers and entire schools are evaluated on children’s abilities to achieve high scores. As a result, some professionals’ wages and school supplies are controlled using this system.
Analysis
The connection between standardized testing and racial inequality may not be apparent. One may pose that tests with fixed questions and answers are inherently equal, asking students to acquire the same type of knowledge. Nevertheless, this aspect of such testing supposes that all children already have access to the same information, books, supplies, and other resources. Furthermore, according to Knoester and Au (2017), only about 20% of the children’s success is related to school activity. Approximately 60% is influenced by outside factors, including one’s social and financial status, place of residence, family situation, and environment (Au, 2016). Thus, it is possible to argue that children from poor neighborhoods, which are often predominantly non-white, do not perform equally to white students in tests that require a similar amount of preparedness.
Furthermore, the creation of these tests is also challenged by the idea of equality. As Au (2016) finds, developers often choose the questions for the final version of the questionnaire based on the amount of correct and incorrect answers from the test takers with high scores. As the latter group is mostly white, the wording of questions and their contents also enforces segregation. The perspective of human rights poses that education has to be equal and accessible to everyone. This analysis of standardized testing reveals the pitfalls in the system and shows how racism is not just unchallenged, but promoted by this initiative.
One can also point out that standardized tests fail to adhere to another notion propagated by the human rights perspective – students’ development of personality. The focus on standardization devalues subjects necessary for physical health, creativity, and skills unrelated to work (Visions of Helsinki, 2016). Instead, children are encouraged to study a limited number of facts and exercises which are removed from the activities that they will perform in their adult life.
Social Work Perspective
The ideologies that guide social work further expose standardized testing as a source of problems for children, teachers, and whole communities. It can be argued that the policy enforcing such a mode of examination does not provide equal opportunities to students as it is not supplemented with giving schools the resources to achieve the same results. Social workers are obligated to advocate for people’s rights, including education. Here, the need to adhere to cultural norms in one’s practice is nonexistent as standardized testing damages vulnerable communities without any connections to religion or culture.
Thus, the “rights limitation” strategy may be suggested to advocate for children unjustly affected by the system (Katiuzhinsky & Okech, 2014). A social policy that calls for supporting communities that cannot adequately ensure good standardized testing results is vital for combating racist and classist educational norms.
Moreover, social work also promotes the analysis of all spheres of one’s environment in order to understand the root of the problem. In this case, the human rights issue is deeper than the students’ intelligence or acquired skills. Thus, the question of welfare has to be brought up when discussing children’s access to education and the capacity of schools to provide students with enough attention and care (Keeney et al., 2014). Other social work issues such as poverty are inseparable from the discussed subject, since the former influences the latter and vice versa. Students who do not succeed in standardized tests cannot access graduate and postgraduate education, and people working in lower-wage jobs cannot put their children through expensive private schools.
Conclusion
The existence of standardized testing is a point of concern in the United States. This measure of one’s ability does not adequately prepare students for professional development or give them space for exploration and creativity. Moreover, it supports the racial and class biases inherent in the current corporate, educational system. Human rights and social work perspectives show how standardized testing promotes inequality and increases the barriers for non-white individuals.
References
Au, W. (2016). Meritocracy 2.0: High-stakes, standardized testing as a racial project of neoliberal multiculturalism. Educational Policy, 30(1), 39-62. Web.
Dean, H. (2008). Social policy and human rights: Re-thinking the engagement. Social Policy and Society, 7(1), 1-12. Web.
Katiuzhinsky, A., & Okech, D. (2014). Human rights, cultural practices, and state policies: Implications for global social work practice and policy. International Journal of Social Welfare, 23(1), 80-88. Web.
Keeney, A. J., Smart, A. M., Richards, R., Harrison, S., Carrillo, M., & Valentine, D. (2014). Human rights and social work codes of ethics: An international analysis. Journal of Social Welfare and Human Rights, 2(2), 1-16. Web.
Knoester, M., & Au, W. (2017). Standardized testing and school segregation: Like tinder for fire? Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(1), 1-14. Web.
Lee, S. E. (2013). Education as a human right in the 21st century. Democracy and Education, 21(1), 1-9. Web.
United Nations. (n.d.). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Web.
Visions of Helsinki. (2016). Why Finland has the best education system in the world. Web.