The Only Good Standardized Test
As testing has risen once again to the surface of the ed policy soup, I have found myself in versions of the same conversation, because people who like the idea of standardized testing really like the idea of standardized testing, and because I said the number of necessary standardized rests is zero.
data from tests are the life blood of education and he took exception with my exception. Someone in the comments called me a "union shill." And a reporter asked me what the alternative to standardized testing would be.
It's a fair question. Is there such a thing as a useful standardized test?
But First a Few Words about Opposition
To have this conversation, we have to get one thing out of the way first. If you believe (and I think some reformsters sincerely believe it) that the only reason that teachers oppose the current high stakes test-and-punish status quo is because their self-serving union tells them to, you are blinding yourself to some real issues. First, there is a real gulf between national union leadership and rank and file teachers precisely because union opposition to reformster policies has been tepid at best. For the most part, NEA and AFT leadership is not whipping up opposition to ed reform policies-- they are trying to tamp it down.
The teacher opposition to testing comes first and foremost from teachers who are watching testing CURMUDGUCATION: The Only Good Standardized Test: