Very good blog post by a 25-year teacher who is tired of all the tests:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...throw-my-students-to-the-testing-wolves/I particularly like this part:
Just how exactly is my student taking a high-stakes standardized test at the end of the year, the test questions of which I never see, the scored tests and essay questions which are never returned to the child, helping that fifth-grader to learn?
I there should be more standardized testing, not less. In elementary school in Massachusetts there are two mornings each devoted to math and English tests, and I think it would be fine to devote another morning each to social studies and science tests. Why shouldn't I get any objective information about how my children are doing in these subjects? I can look at their report card grades, but how do I know what a "3" or "4" means, in the absence of a published grade distribution? Our elementary schools like to talk about how wonderful they are. At the open house the principal describes the teachers are "superstars". They aren't. I'm not. Standardized tests actually let parents compare performance across schools. No wonder schools don't like it.
