As more colleges move to "test optional" admissions policies, the debate over the utility and interpretation of standardized-test scores continues. In this article, the author interviews Daniel Koretz, a professor of education at Harvard University and author of "Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us". Koretz…

Teachers are in most cases public employees. So the public at large, in theory, gets to decide how they are paid. The commission model variants of which have been proposed for some time, would involve compensating teachers for the value they provide to their school's operation, that is, the degree to which they educate their students.…

A fundamental goal of teachers in public schools in British Columbia (BC) is to ensure all students of every age, through the principle of continuous learning, have an equal opportunity to develop their full capacity for artistic, cultural, emotional, intellectual, and physical growth. BC public school teachers believe that the primary purpose of…

Over the past 6 years, the Oral History Project Team has conducted interviews with individuals who have influenced the theory and practice of evaluation. In 2006, Robin Miller, with the help of Christian Coryn of The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University (WMU), and Daniela Schroeter, also at the Center, sat down with widely regarded…

The Spellings Commission report stresses that higher education must become more accountable, more transparent, and more open to the scrutiny of its stakeholders. The key word is always "accountability," to which the canonical reaction among educators is a reaffirmation of the remarkable diversity of American colleges and universities and the…

Following the whirlwind standards movement of the 1980s, the beginning of the 1990s ushered in an overwhelming interest in and use of testing to document students' progress. In 1991, the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) issued its second position paper calling for a moratorium on standardized testing in the early years of…

Oivind Varkoy discusses instrumentalism as a trend in educational politics and pedagogical thinking. Instrumentalism implies looking upon both school subjects and humans as instruments, as tools or means for reaching another goal or end. The discussion is related to philosophy of music education by focusing on aspects of philosophies of humankind,…

While I wrote this column, there seemed to be a lull in new software announcements for education and educators. Perhaps it is reflective of the tightening of school budgets or the heavy emphasis on standardized tests and strictly measurable results here in the United States, which has lead to fewer really exciting software announcements lately.…

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…

With the No Child Left Behind Act in limbo, the time is right for big thinking on intergovernmental collaboration in the ways we measure and report results in our schools. The Rockefeller Institute convened 40 experts including former New York education commissioner Gordon Ambach, Chester E. Finn, Jr., of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute,…

In this article, the author discusses the five-paragraph essay, a way of organizing ideas into an introduction with a main argument, three body paragraphs that develop that argument, and a conclusion that advances the argument a step further by way of application or tantalizing suggestion. She stresses the importance of teaching the five-paragraph…

The author looks at critical dialogue surrounding the causes for the alarming high numbers of high school dropouts in states that use high stakes standardized testing mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, and investigates the perceived correlations between high stakes testing and high numbers of high school dropouts of minority students.

Over the past 35 years, the public, as well as state and federal policy makers, have increasingly pressured higher education to create a culture of evidence and, specifically, to account for student learning. While virtually all states report on collegiate learning using proxies (e.g., graduation rates), colleges and universities are now being…

An argument is presented on whether helping students intelligently critique standardized tests is a necessary form of test preparation. The detailed analysis of typical questions reveals what students are truly asked to do on the tests.

In their popular explanation of No Child Left Behind, journalists and other public voices claim that unruly and inefficient public schools are being brought under the control of effective central authorities by scientific, test-driven accountability. Other popular themes of reform in media include mayoral control of schools, non-educators as…