History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
New tests: expensive, harmful, unnecessary
- 09-08-2010
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Blog by Stephen Krashen/Schools Matter
Arne Duncan plans new tests, tightly linked to standards, to be given throughout the year ("US asks educators to reinvent student tests, and how they are given," Sept. 2). We can't afford it: Test construction, validation, revision, etc. will cost billions, at a time when school are short of funds, when many science classes have no lab equipment, school libraries have few books, school years are being shortened, and teachers are losing their jobs. The tests will have a devastating effect on teaching: Regular, standards-linked testing means a lock-step uniform curriculum, destroying what little is left of teacher flexibility and autonomy. They are unnecessary. Research suggests that teacher evaluation (grades) is an excellent measure of student progress and achievement, and we already have a standardized test useful for comparisons: The NAEP, given every few years to small groups of students, with results extrapolated to estimate how larger groups would do. (more…)
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