The pages of The Washington Post provided for some interesting and disparate reading over the last few weeks regarding Superintendent Joshua Starr and his comments about standardized testing. If you remember, Dr. Starr called for a three year national moratorium on standardized testing. This led to several articles, including ones in the Post by Robert McCartney and by Valerie Strauss praising the idea of stepping back from the over-testing of students, the implementing of too many "reforms" at one time and Dr. Starr's belief that linking teacher evaluations to student test scores is a bad idea.
However the Post's editorial board couldn't let the occassion pass, and choose to publish an editorial calling Dr. Starr's ideas a "recipe for classroom failure."
On the heels of this editorial, Ms. Strauss published a piece by New York City principal Carol Burris, which supported Dr. Starr and defended his position on test score based evaluations.
For the first time since passage of the federal "No Child Left Behind" law, we are finally seeing the beginnings of a national discussion over whether the standardized testing obsession of the so-called "education reformers" is really what our students need today. Student achievement in the United States is often ranked poorly compared to international "high flyers" like Finland, Singapore and Hong Kong; yet none of those countries rely as heavily on standardized testing as we do.
Perhaps we could learn something from their focus on high quality curriculum, respect for the teaching profession, good professional development and extensive time for teachers to prepare for and individualize instruction.
However the Post's editorial board couldn't let the occassion pass, and choose to publish an editorial calling Dr. Starr's ideas a "recipe for classroom failure."
On the heels of this editorial, Ms. Strauss published a piece by New York City principal Carol Burris, which supported Dr. Starr and defended his position on test score based evaluations.
For the first time since passage of the federal "No Child Left Behind" law, we are finally seeing the beginnings of a national discussion over whether the standardized testing obsession of the so-called "education reformers" is really what our students need today. Student achievement in the United States is often ranked poorly compared to international "high flyers" like Finland, Singapore and Hong Kong; yet none of those countries rely as heavily on standardized testing as we do.
Perhaps we could learn something from their focus on high quality curriculum, respect for the teaching profession, good professional development and extensive time for teachers to prepare for and individualize instruction.
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