Monday, March 15, 2010

Dr. Diane Ravitch and the "Not Test?" critique

There have been columnists who have criticized Dr. Ravitch by writing: "....what are they supposed to do? Not test?"

The answer to this issue is somewhere in the middle of current practice. We must test! Such feedback is critical. But should we give that feedback the undeserved power we are now giving testing?  It is as if people outside the school system needed to think they understood everything happening inside schools, and now think testing does that.

Should the results of testing literally run our schools? Are the tests that accurate?

It appears people think these tests accurately represent everything our children need to know to succeed in the real world.

We must sober up! That is not how the world is!