Rick Hess Chides Corporate Reformers for Too Much Reforminess
There’s good reason to regularly test students in reading and math, and to use those results to inform judgments about how well schools and teachers are doing.
What reason is that? In fact, there is good reason to test students in English and math, butnot to see how schools and teachers are doing. There's no scientific basis for that, and Hess doesn't bother to provide one, primarily because there isn't one.
As an English teacher, I regularly test my students to find out how they are doing, and I use these tests to inform my teaching. If a large number of students fail, I need to teach the topic again, differently perhaps, and write another test. Of course, if they're taking some multiple choice extravaganza from Pearson, while I will grant this enriches the all-important Pearson coffers, I fail to see how this will help my kids.
Hess fails to acknowledge the massive time devoted to tests that students will never see again, will never learn from, and which will be used to