SchoolsRetooled TM

Anti-Testing Activism Is Destroying Evidence

May 1, 2013 at 10:52 AM Leave a comment

Testing for compliance with NCLB is meant to reassure regulators that we are delivering on 14^th amendment rights of our students for that personal property that is education. Period. We owe it to the students. Hiding the evidence that some of the kids are not given that which is due them is a cover-up. And part of what is hidden under that cloak is a secret belief among educators that all children are not equal in their most basic potential.

Educators who rally against achievement tests probably to not think they are obstructing justice. In fact, they may be wonderful teachers of social justice, environmental justice, or economic justice. But their efforts to obscure this measure of educational justice are out of synch. Kids who cannot pass the tests have been cheated out of some piece of their property rights for an equitable education.

Achievement tests set lower limits for adequacy of education in terms of literacy and mathematical ability. We still need to work harder to prove to ourselves and to the children that they have the intellectual ability to match their peers in the classroom and in life. Those who are afraid the children cannot pass the test guarantee that those same children are less likely to find out how great their accomplishments in life might be.

Hiding the evidence does not negate the charges levied against us…nor does it save the children from paying the price for life.

Entry filed under: Issues and Ideas, Student Outcomes.