Blayne Sucks

Somehow, I am not entirely surprised by the Teachers who Cheat article on SFGate.com. It’s a pretty obvious result from linking funding to standardized test scores, and similar things have been reported in the past. Any testing agency must be independent, and remain that way if they wish to continue to be a testing agency. If they have a stake in the results of the test, they are, by definition, a stakeholder.

It seems to me that No Child Left Behind has proven to be one of most disappointing educational programs in history. I am not an expert, but I have been through public schools and taken a standardized test or two. I have generally done well on them, but I have never felt as though the results really mattered all that much. Most of the well-known standardized tests I took only vaguely resembled the things they were trying to test.

Once a teacher has a stake in tests like these one of two things can result. A teacher can cheat, as was reported in this article, or a teacher can teach to the test. The first problem can be solved by not tying test performance to school funding. The second problem can be mitigated by removing the vast amount of standardized testing.

The point of standardized testing is generally to measure the level of education someone has at a point in time. Of course, most people only test things that have an unknown quality to them. Thus, the simple fact that there is more testing shows me that the American educational system has less knowledge about the quality of their students now than previously. I can only attribute this to a lack of trust in their educators.

Of course, I wouldn’t trust people to perform satisfactorily a job as difficult as education with the meager wages they receive in compensation. They are either desperately cutting corners, or really, really dedicated. If you are willing to spend all this money on more standardized testing, why not raise their wages and simply pony up the money the position deserves?