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
Philosophical proof: Why testing obsession is nutty
- 03-10-2011
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Guest blog by Carol Cross/Washington Post
With all the discussion back and forth about standardized testing and data-driven schools and performance-based teacher evaluation and salary systems, etc., I thought perhaps I should go back to my philosophical roots and use some old-fashioned philosophical proofs to bring clarity to the debate. I could probably write this all up in formal philosophical logic symbols, but to make it more reader-friendly, I’m just going to use the English language. Argument #1 High standardized test scores are necessary because they prove the effectiveness of school education. High standardized testing scores require all students to give the same correct answers to the questions. For all students to give the same correct answers to the questions, all students must learn the same things in their educational classes. All students learning the same thing in their education means that school education is standardized. Therefore, to have high standardized testing score, education must be standardized. (more...)
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