How Testing Reflects on Our Shortcomings

Sometimes I see us (society) complaining about students and the fact that they want to put in the least amount of work to get by.  We wonder what the problem is...why do they cheat? why don't they want to learn?  They are no different from the rest of society.  We do the same thing, especially when it comes to education, especially testing.  The November 17th edition of Ed Week contained a number of articles that point out the fact that many different elements helps students learn:  integrating dance into lessons, commitment from teachers & scientists in the study of evolution, technology, recess, etc. However, they are all effective tools that create results which are hard to measure.  So, instead we focus on the superficial facts when creating the tests, and we put in the least amount of effort and work when figuring out what our students have learned.  Do we want to have students who have good short-term recall to answer well on tests, or do we want students to have a concept of what they learned that they can apply to other areas of their studies and their lives for the long-term?  The short-term recall is the quickest and easiest for us to assess. If we had to measure the real depth, it would cost much more time, effort and money.  We're doing the same thing that we look down on students for doing.  It seems that we are complaining about bad model we've provided for them but still expecting different results!