This book's title, "I Used to Think... And Now I Think...", is borrowed from an exercise often used at the end of teacher professional development sessions, in which participants write down how what they've learned has changed their thinking. The resulting essays model the ongoing process of reflection and growth among those deeply committed to…

Kindergarten has changed significantly in the last two decades: children now spend more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to…

Describes a week of testing 28 second graders. Points out how much classroom time testing consumes, how frustrating it is for teachers, and how emotionally trying it is for young students and their families. Maintains that all children operate at different developmental levels in different skills and should not be compared to each other. (MLF)

Virginia Standards of Learning will not work for excellence or for equity. First, the big ideas of the disciplines get lost in the specificity; second, the rigidity in requiring students to meet standards at each grade level does not offer flexibility to schools and teachers to adapt time and instructional methods. Well-defined standards should be…

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a measure of an individual student's potential for success in college. Discusses limitations of the test and how misconceptions can prompt educators and community members to focus on the wrong goals. (MLF)

An Ohio school board member contends that standardized tests wrongly assume a standardized test-taking population and that legislatures and others believe education is not successful unless students pass tests. Believes the goal should be to help all students perform up to their own potential and to instill in children a love of learning. (MLF)

Overreliance on standardized testing sends a message to students that learning is remembering facts, and that intelligence is a function of how quickly people can do things. In schools around the country, the content and style of teaching are being placed in the service of the tests. (MLF)

Testing and assessment have become extremely important components of the educational program. The purpose of this position paper is to provide factual and policy-related information that may be of use to school boards as they design or improve their districts' testing and assessment policies. It is the New York State policy that school boards…

Educational achievement testing is discussed from four perspectives: (1) political accountability; (2) parental need for information on children's academic achievement; (3) the undue influence of achievement tests on curricula and instruction; and (4) students' views of testing. It is concluded that standardized testing has an overall negative…

This paper comments that problems with Great Britain's Key Stage 1 standard assessment tasks (SATs) for pupils with special educational needs involve the SATs design and use. Issues discussed include activity-based assessments, adaptations, time demands, step size, future development of SATs, and disapplications of the National Curriculum. (JDD)

Describes a method for making standardized test results more useful for teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents by providing information on the test content actually mastered by the student and on the student's individual development over time, as well as providing traditional numerical and norm-referenced scores. (PGD)

This commentary examines the political rhetoric evident in the education reform movement. Specifically, the paper questions what becomes of children with disabilities when schools feel pressure to improve standardized test scores and questions why educators are not included in the task forces of the National Governors' Association initiative on…

Canadian parents and educators are targeted with a campaign designed to convince them that lack of adequate testing represents a major barrier to educational reform. The paper examines the dangers and adverse effects of standardized testing, reviewing recent attempts to alert educators and policymakers to the deficiencies of standardized testing.…

Annual desk reference of key education facts is organized as follows: (1) year's education events in review; (2) common measures of education attainment; (3) cost of school construction; (4) demographics of school leadership; (5) gender gap in academic achievement; and (6) key education indicators by region and by state. (MLF)

Presents a review of developments in aesthetic education and discipline-based education and their impact on art education. Asserts that current trends and events suggest that major changes in art education could occur. Concludes that standardized testing of art learning is one possible result. (CFR)