As testocrats continue their full court press to back up the Biden edict that 2021 Big Standardized Tests must occur, it's worth remembering that we have been doing this for twenty-ish years.
That means that we are long past the point when tests should be sold based on the wonderful things they are going to do; instead, we should be hearing about all the wonderful things they have done.
For instance, instead of arguing that the BS Tests are a necessary tool for addressing pandemic-exacerbated inequity, testocrats ought to be telling the story of how BS Test data has helped erase inequity in the past.
We should be hearing the story of East Egg High School where, armed with BS Test data, the school closed the achievement gap. "We crunched that data," says Principal Hiram Pothetical, "and within just a few years, our achievement gap and equity issues had disappeared."
Or maybe the "we need tests to target resources" crowd could be telling us the stories of schools across the country where, armed with BS Test data, state legislatures raced resources and support to those schools that looked as if they were in trouble, and within a few years, the school was totally recreated as a high-achieving model. Hell, even in states where "target for resources" actually turned out to mean "targeted for resources and take-over by privatizers," there are no continue reading: CURMUDGUCATION: The Greatest Testing Stories Never Told