Eugene Robinson: The racket with standardized test scores
It is time to acknowledge that the fashionable theory of school reform — requiring that pay and job security for teachers, principals and administrators depend on their students’ standardized test scores — is at best a well-intentioned mistake, and at worst nothing but a racket.I read that first paragraph of this column by Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Eugene Robinson and found myself wanting to stand up and cheer. For years those of us in the trenches in education have tried to make people aware that the Emperor of Educational "Reform" in the form of test-driven accountability was naked: it had little to do with real reform, and was destructive of meaningful learning and teaching. Given that the editorial board of his paper has been among the champions of test-driven reform, this is of special significance.Robinson's column is not perfect. He considers standardized achievement tests "a vital tool." But to misuse use a tool can be worse than not having it - using a sledge hammer to set a broken bone is more destructive than helpful, and that has been how we have used standardized tests in the so-called reform movement.
I am glad for Robinson's column, even as I am going to criticize some additional parts of it.