Enough with the Testing

As we march along toward the end of the year with reauthorization bogged down, let’s not lose sight of some of the critical improvements that NCLB needs to make it through the next round.

For one, the mania for standardized testing. Yes, it’s an easy-to-understand measurement of “success” for the uninitiated, but nearly six years into this law, does anyone not realize the unintended consequences, the shortfalls, the soul-sucking, the ethical issues, the pain for kids, parents, teachers wrought by over-reliance on standardized tests?

For those still in the dark, Dan Brown’s column in the Boston Globe last Saturday is good reading. With examples from his classroom in the Bronx, he shows how NCLB’s emphasis on testing fails a range of students. And he reminds us not to buy into the hype. 

It’s not just the government trumpeting high-stakes testing as the way to get “accountability” from schools. The media have largely gone along for the ride as well, trumpeting minute shifts in test score graphs as headline-worthy successes or failures.

We have taken our eye off the ball on what is most important in schools - students’ needs.

Brown’s hardly saying anything new when he says, “Prepping for the test and getting a well-rounded education are not the same thing, but there is not room in the school day for both tasks.”

But it’s something that needs to be repeated until it’s no longer necessary to say it anymore.

Explore posts in the same categories: reauthorization, testing