Subjective & Objective

DISCLAIMER: After digesting this chapter, I am feeling like a grump. Please allow for general sarcasm, mockery, and all around moodiness.

Dear James D. Williams,

We don’t live in an objective world. Get over it.

Sincerely,

Me

But seriously, evaluation will never be free of subjectivity, no matter how one might try. Williams first writes that “the standard [of evaluation] may be one that individual teachers bring to their classrooms . . . The individual standard is not only the most common but also the most problematic because it naturally varies from teacher to teacher, creating uneven evaluation of students engaged in similar activities” (298). Later, Williams suggests that teachers collaborate with one another to make evaluation more reliable. Sure, instructors may agree on some of the factors of “good writing,” but what of their separate methodologies? If one teacher favors creativity, while another places high importance on clarity, should a merging of ideologies be forced? Personally, I don’t think so. Even as a student, I don’t want to conform to some bore of a standard rubric in every classroom. I like when different professors value opposing facets of writing. With a rubric, I’m just playing it safe and writing to it, much as an instructor “teaches to the test.” How uninspiring.

Still, when the reliability, validity, and funds all come together to create a standardized test, such as the SAT, I do not consider it flawless. Through my own experience, such tests have never fully measured my abilities accurately. I am an average math student, and have been known to fret over many an algebraic problem, but yet I consistently score higher on the math portion than the verbal. I have never been able to determine why. Doesn’t seem too accurate to me.

Additionally, I had a bit of a laugh when Williams discussed the lack of a correlation between federal funding and student and school performance. Leave it to us material Americans to focus on the monetary aspects of education, instead of what truly matters, such as student preparation for schooling. We are so quick to place the blame on something that is apparently lacking, such as funding, or teacher attentiveness, when the problems of the education system are really so much bigger than a dollar sign. I see a lot of the system’s problems as belonging to the wayward focus of society.