All Together Now

Image source:  MPCA photos     Honestly, I don't know. Ok, OK, I know a few things.... We need to be truthful about standardized tests. We need to talk often and publicly about their limitations, their built-in discrimination against poor kids, and what they can and can't measure.  We need to stop using standardized tests as the primary way we measure, and talk about, the quality of teaching and learning in schools.  We need to get serious about equity. Whether or not a school gets resources should not be left up to haphazard grant-writing, parent contributions, or a "market-driven" funding formula. We need a new way to budget money for schools - one that provides at the very least a baseline budget for every school - but more likely we need to let go of market-driven approaches. Equity doesn't mean that everyone gets the same, it means that everyone gets what they need. Kids are not a product and schools are not a business - as long as there are kids in th...

 In the first two posts in this series, we talked about about two factors that might influence student scores: school resources and student family income . Now we're going to tackle a key cornerstone of modern school reform: standardized testing.  If you recall, the theory of the case of school reformers is that standardized tests will provide parents with a way to compare schools, and then make an informed decision about where to send their kids. In this post we're going to look at standardized testing.  A lot of the complaints about standardized testing are about its effects on teaching and learning. Opponents of high-stakes standardized testing will argue that it only measures a limited range of skills, in a way that doesn't necessarily reflect a student's true talents. They may argue that it doesn't measure crucial skills like creativity, problem-solving or leadership, that resources devoted to ELA/math test prep crowd out other subjects like science or social ...