Testing

Will national standards ever arrive?

John Merrow innovation, school reform, Testing

As I write this, close to half of the states have signed on to the draft of national standards, officially called the common core. Observers are predicting that well over half will be on board by summer’s end.

National StandardsThere’s a long way to go before we have genuine national standards in core subjects, and there’s no guarantee that they will be challenging enough, given the inevitable pressures to water them down.

And if we do develop worthwhile standards, some form of national testing is likely to follow.

The President of the United States is already on board for that. He said, “I believe we need some national standard education achievement tests—to be used only optionally when states and/or local school systems want them.”

Whoops, that wasn’t Obama; that was Jimmy Carter in 1977.

By the way, the public is on board. 77% of the public favors using national testing programs to measure the academic achievement of students.

Whoops, that was the Gallup Poll back in 1989. Continue reading →

One Good Turn…

John Merrow Testing

If you’re a reporter or any sort of education wonk, then you’ve been aware of FairTest, the shorthand name for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. The folks at FairTest have been superb advocates, warning us of the dangers of mindless embraces of bubble tests and cheap standardized, machine-scored exams.

Fair Test

I believe we need FairTest more than ever. No Child Left Behind is still the law of the land and is likely to remain so for many months. As we move toward common standards, we need voices calling for multiple ways of evaluating schools, teachers and students. Those who believe that one score tells it all are sadly wrong, but they are also very powerful.

Sophie Sa, a friend of many years who is now FairTest’s Board Chair, reminded me that FairTest was created in 1985 “to fight against the misuses and abuses of high-stakes standardized norm-referenced tests … while promoting the use of multiple forms of authentic alternate assessments.”

I agree with Sophie that FairTest has been “the leader, the organizational glue, and the legs for individuals and groups concerned with the deleterious effects of standardized testing on students, particularly students in need; on schools and their curriculum; and on the kind of learning that emphasizes critical thinking and deep knowledge.”

Sophie and I go way back, to my own professional crisis back in 1994. Continue reading →