The culture of competition and assessment is not confined to Asia.
‘Helicopter parents’ in the West who ‘hover’ over their offspring, filling every
moment with extra lessons and after-school clubs, create too much pressure on
their children (Rettner 2010; Anon. 2013; Broder 2013; Dixon 2013). Test scores
have become an ‘obsession’ in a culture of testing and have been opposed by
Ravitch (2010). Many school districts in the United States (US) have invested
heavily in test-preparation materials and activities, and ‘test-taking skills and
strategies [have taken] precedence over knowledge’.7 She laments that some
teachers use tests from previous years to prepare their students, and many of
the questions appear in precisely the same format every year; sometimes the
exact same questions reappear on state tests. In urban schools, where there are
many low-performing students, drill and practice have become a significant
part of the daily routine. Other education thinkers have expressed concerns
that US schools are stifling student creativity, or causing a ‘creativity crisis’
(Bronson and Merryman 2010). The US Secretary of Education has recently
acknowledged serious flaws in the standardized tests that have been driving
American schools and high stakes testing regime has suffocated schools when
tests are not inadequate for gauging the performances of students and teachers.
He has called for ‘assessment 2.0’, which would provide timely evaluation
of student performance in areas beyond reading and math, including science,
advanced class work, and career readiness (Adams 2013)