How Long Has Testing Been a Bad Idea? Probably Since it Began… but For Sure It’s Been Five Decades!
For those who STILL think standardized tests were EVER a good idea, I offer this profile of Columbia Teachers College professor Jay Heubert and this paragraph:
“The hope is that such tests will give us important information on which students need help, and what kinds of help they need. But testing can help students improve only if the results are used to improve the quality of education that disadvantaged students get,” he says. “I’m not against testing. Quite the opposite — we desperately need to know which students — and which kinds of students — need more support, and good tests, properly used, can give us such information. But test scores by themselves don’t improve learning any more than a thermometer by itself cures a fever. Both give us information that we can use to address the problem. But as my colleague Michael Rebell [TC Professor of Law & Educational Practice] has shown, in many places states and school districts are not willing or able to invest what it costs to make such improvements. And if you set high standards but don’t do what it takes to help students meet those standards, then putting kids in low-track classes, or holding them back, or denying them high-school diplomas amounts to punishing children for not knowing what their schools have never taught them. That is simply unacceptable — educationally, legally, and ethically.”
Vote even if you think it doesn’t matter…. and be grateful you still can!
Network Schools - Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for 
Students who are exposed to teachers and administrators who use standardized tests as is quoted in the article
“And if you set high standards but don’t do what it takes to help students meet those standards, then putting kids in low-track classes, or holding them back, or denying them high-school diplomas amounts to punishing children for not knowing what their schools have never taught them. That is simply unacceptable — educationally, legally, and ethically.”
should rise up and protest. The teachers and administrators who engage in such tactics should be given one warning to improved and also be shown what they need to do to improve before they are fired. Let us stop coddling those who can’t educate. This means the school district is expected to produce. And if the unions are too strong for this too be implemented, then some one else should have their neck on the line.
If a district does not use the test scores correctly, then this is a time for the state government to step in, quickly. It is time to expect people to earn their keep.
I believe there are many teachers and administrators who use tests for the right reasons. To have no such tests is like saying there is no need for a World Series, not district and state track meets, and every person gets the same identical trophy.