Behind the Standardized Test Curtain
Standardized tests. It’s hard nowadays to think about education without them—they’ve become the metric, the substance, the rationale for schooling. We use them to identify success and failure, to tell us which schools to shut down, which teachers to fire, and which students to let graduate. I think it’s safe to say standardized tests carry more weight today than literally any other aspect of our education system.
But what do these tests actually consist of? I recently got a window into this issue after reading the Kafkaesque account of a man who spent 15 years of his life working in the K-12 testing business for some of the biggest players in the industry (Pearson Education, Educational Testing Service, American Institutes of Research, etc.—names any teacher or school administrator would be very familiar with). The man, Todd Farley, wrote, “While I did enjoy the career (good money, nice people, fun trips), it also left me completely convinced of the utter folly of entrusting decisions about American students, teachers, and schools to the for-profit industry that long employed me. I don’t know how anyone who’s seen what I’ve seen could feel any differently.”
Farley did not develop this position out of any pedagogical or ideological concerns; he’s not an educator and he doesn’t seem to be invested in this debate one way or the other. Rather, he came to his position for the same reason a guy who works in the kitchen of a not-so-reputable restaurant might choose to never frequent that
But what do these tests actually consist of? I recently got a window into this issue after reading the Kafkaesque account of a man who spent 15 years of his life working in the K-12 testing business for some of the biggest players in the industry (Pearson Education, Educational Testing Service, American Institutes of Research, etc.—names any teacher or school administrator would be very familiar with). The man, Todd Farley, wrote, “While I did enjoy the career (good money, nice people, fun trips), it also left me completely convinced of the utter folly of entrusting decisions about American students, teachers, and schools to the for-profit industry that long employed me. I don’t know how anyone who’s seen what I’ve seen could feel any differently.”
Farley did not develop this position out of any pedagogical or ideological concerns; he’s not an educator and he doesn’t seem to be invested in this debate one way or the other. Rather, he came to his position for the same reason a guy who works in the kitchen of a not-so-reputable restaurant might choose to never frequent that
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