We already have tests

An argument for standards and tests is that they will allow comparisons among districts states, and other countries. But we already have instruments that can do this quite well. The NAEP is given every few years to samples of children, and the results are extrapolated to get an accurate picture of how different areas are doing. We need not test every child; the doctor does not have to take all your blood to get an accurate picture of your health.

We would be much better off improving the NAEP than starting all over again with a massive standards and testing program.

There is no evidence that more testing leads to better achievement; in fact, there is tremendous evidence that it has the opposite effect, converting instruction into test-prep rather than real learning.

Dangers of narrow, rigid standards

Everyone in education understands the value of having some common baseline benchmarks as well as the value of assessment. The department of education's push, however, appears to be for narrow and rigid national standards and widespread testing. Secretary Duncan has stated that his goal is to ensure that all children know where they are "on every step of their educational trajectory" at all times.

These tests will dominate the curriculum and even become the curriculum. In fact, one school has already dropped traditional grades and has substituted progress in the standards on report cards ("Miles adopts standards-based grading," August 24, 2009, Cincinnati Enquirer). This promotes a skill-building, rigid scope-and-sequence approach that is not in tune what is known about the way children learn.

A great deal of research (and common sense) tells us that many "skills" are acquired as the result of doing other things: Most our knowledge of concepts and facts is the result of our attempts to solve real-world problems that are of interest to us (Krashen, 2003). The encyclopedic knowledge experts have of their fields is not the result of drill and study: Linus Pauling did not review the Periodic Table each day, but gained his huge knowledge of chemistry from his wide research interests.

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