Describes an education professor's antipathy toward standardized tests, based on first graders' reactions to three days of year-end standardized testing. Although many respondents felt good about themselves as learners, most did not do particularly well on the tests. Standardized tests are not the best way to measure young children's learning…

In this article, the author expresses his doubts about rubrics. He contends that rubrics have several drawbacks and these are the following: (1) Rubrics prevent teachers from improving their practices and rethinking their premises; (2) Students tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself; and (3) Good…

Imagine, in a short story medium, teaching in a public school system in which standardized tests have become the reason for and purpose of education. (SR)

Suggests how administrators can understand the functions and relative merits of standardized tests. Notes that effective testing involves identifying criteria to be tested, techniques for testing these criteria, and standards for evaluation results. Urges principals to encourage the development and improvement of teachers' evaluation skills to…

Examines the standards movement, criticizing the inappropriateness of many proposed benchmarks. Argues that national standards are a xenophobic reaction to foreign competition and serve narrow nationalistic interests, rather than the goal of developing the fullest potential of learners. (SK)

Discusses whether scores achieved by college seniors on standardized tests such as Graduate Record Examination can express collegiate value added (knowledge, skills, and abilities added to students during undergraduate studies). Encourages professional organizations to serve as forums to arrive at consensus on how to explain efficacy of…

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)

Offers responses from three teachers regarding how best to prepare students for standardized tests while maintaining meaningful instruction. (SR)

Suggests that students should be selected on the basis of their demonstrated success in learning, not some ill-defined notion of aptitude. (Author/MM)

Accountability is the catchphrase for today's educators, who recognize that they and the institutions they represent are expected to demonstrate value--to students, faculty, administrators and the larger community. But instructional accountability is about far more than standardized test scores, dropout rates or transiency and attainment of…

Inside the Washington, D.C., beltway, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is seen as either a sea change in federal education policy or a half-measure designed to demonstrate the political leadership's willingness to "do something"on education. There is no genuine opposition in Washington to…

In this article, the author presents the story of Hope--an education student who, despite many successes, was consistently unable to pass the reading portion of a screening test (Praxis I) that is a prerequisite to student teaching in her home state of Georgia. Hope's only trouble was the fact that she was a slow reader due to attention deficit…

According to a February 9, 2006 "New York Times" story headlined, "Panel Explores Standard Tests for Colleges," a new accountability era is descending upon a resistant higher education domain. The story describes the deliberations of a Bush-appointed commission considering imposition of standardized tests on college students. Ten days earlier, the…

Studies on the acting white hypothesis--the premise that black students purposefully do poorly in school and on standardized tests because of racialized peer pressure--to explain the black-white achievement gap have not been able to negate the fact that a "burden of acting white" exists for some black students, even though it is not prevalent…

Media reports are rife with claims that students in the United States are overtested and that they and their education are suffering as result. Here I argue the opposite--that students would benefit in numerous ways from more frequent assessment, especially of diagnostic testing. The regular assessment of students serves critical educational and…