A Fundamental Principle: No Unnecessary Testing (NUT)
Stephen Krashen
(An earlier version of this paper was published in The Colorado Communicator vol 32,1. Page 7, 2008)
Summary: Do not invest billions on new standards and tests. Instead, work on improving the NAEP to get a picture of how our students are performing, and continue to use teacher evaluation to evaluate individual student performance. We should begin by cutting back testing, not adding testing.
No Unnecessary Testing (NUT) is the principle that school should include only those tests and parts of tests that are necessary, that contribute to essential evaluation and learning. Every minute testing and doing “test preparation” (activities to boost scores on tests that do not involve genuine learning) is stolen from students’ lives, in addition to costing money that we