At education conferences on school improvement, meetings and workshops everywhere, educators decry the debilitating effects of the current obsession with testing. Education is supposed to be about bringing out the best in children – helping them to develop their minds, bodies and souls. Education is derived from the Latin word educare, meaning to “bring up”, which is related to educere, meaning “bring out,” “bring forth what is within,” and “bring out potential,” and ducere, which means “to lead.” Test is derived from the Latin word testum, which refers to the lid of an earthen vessel, an earthen vessel or an earthen pot. So, I conclude that the current state of education is more accurately “testucation”, a process in which “testucators” attempt to deliver information or “testucate” their “testuees” to store information in a pot with the lid on.

Research shows that 85% of the information that testucators spend their time delivering to testuees to prepare for tests is forgotten shortly after the test, and therefore useless to the testuee and, thus, to society. It is no wonder that educators, wherever testing is ubiquitous, are frustrated, burned out and quitting their jobs. Not only are they unable to realize their dreams to educate students, they are reduced to playing the role of a robot delivering useless information to children who are bored out of their minds.

It doesn’t need to be this way. If teachers work collaboratively to educate students through inquiry-based, transdiciplinary teaching and projects, students will excel on tests and, more importantly, as learners. By creating connections across disciplines, teachers provide a context that enables students to understand and remember what they are learning because it fits into and expands what they know. Children love that kind of learning. They are discoverers by nature.

In addition, when teachers collaborate with each other, they experience the joy of working with colleagues and reduce the feelings of isolation that are so prevalent among teachers. Classrooms may be teachers’ castles, but they are more often like silos. In either case, they can be very lonely places. Make no mistake, working collaboratively requires lots of hard work and devotion to being a team player. It’s not for the faint of heart and it’s a thousand times better than being an isolated testucator.

One more thing, it’s virtually impossible for teachers to create an engaging and challenging learning environment without a strong school leader who is equally devoted to education and against testucation. School leaders need to step up to the plate and go to bat for their teachers. They must create the time and conditions for their faculty to plan together, and develop inquiry-based projects and a transdisciplinary curriculum. I can tell you from experience, that when strong leaders build teams of collaborative educators devoted to inquiry- and project-based learning, students excel in every way, teachers feel happy and fulfilled, and parents are ecstatic.