A superintendent recently described standardized testing as a tool to compare schools with. He went on to say that only one test is needed so they can measure how they are doing compared to another school in the state.
No, that wasn’t the purpose of standardized testing. Standardized tests, when used properly, were a tool that parents could use to see how well their child was doing compared to other children who took the same test. Some schools would use the Stanford Achievement Test, the California Achievement Test or the Iowa Basic Skills Test. (Notice they are all achievement TESTS)
Students have been taking standardized tests in the past and it’s been a helpful tool. Parents could then address the school administrators if they felt there was room for improvement. It is a great way to engage parents in the education of their children.
Remember when the schools actually used achievement tests (tests of academic knowledge) versus the new psychometric assessments of your child’s values, attitudes and dispositions? Let’s face it, when did you ever hear of an uproar over a school using the Stanford Achievement Test?
The new testing scheme forces schools to use “assessments.” Assessments are very different from achievement tests. The new assessments measure things like values, attitudes and dispositions in a child. This information on your children will be needed as Obama’s dumbed down workforce training requires a large amount of data on each child. This is how the STATE will determine where your child goes in life.
Bureaucrats now want to know everything about your children versus give YOU, the parent, valuable information on how well your school is performing.
Parents are now turning on testing. They are refusing to let their kids take these psych assessments because they know that this no longer benefits them. Why let the government data-mine information on their children that can possibly be used against them someday in the same way they are using them against their schools and teachers?
Standardized Testing and how reformers destroyed it:
1) No Child Left Behind (NCLB) began to punish schools based on test results
2) NCLB and Common Core (CCSS) began collecting personal data on children
3) CCSS started punishing teachers with the test scores
4) NCLB and CCSS shifted the focus to giving info to bureaucrats versus informing parents
Achievement tests offer feedback to parents so they can engage the schools.
Reformers destroyed this practice when they decided psych assessments for their use was the primary purpose of standardized testing.