Standardized tests are too simple and simple-minded for high stakes assessment of children and schools. Some schools have even managed to set more ethereal standards still. The Park Ridge, Ill. school board earned praise from New York Times education writer Richard Rothstein because they now teach sixth graders lessons in anger management and patience. Grading student essays about quarrels they had experienced has another advantage. The best OCR could say about large-scale standardized tests in is that their use is not inconsistent with federal nondiscrimination laws.
Some folks go further still.
Thankfully, President Bush recently suggested a willingness to take a second look at his standardized-test plan. Conservatives can only hope he takes a third look and a fourth if need be. There is simply no workable way for the federal government to mandate any sort of true test of student knowledge. Any government-required test will soon be demolished by those who believe all knowledge is relative and that speaking English is unnecessary. Such tests will show no child has been left behind, even if high-school graduates must vote by pointing to a picture.