Standardized Testing And The Death Of Democracy--Standardized Testing Failures Slam Indiana: Part Of National Plot To Turn Our Kids In To Braindead, Pliable Testbots (Picture)

  It’s no secret that many of the nation’s politicians are stuck on stupid when it comes to education. Standardized testing, forcing educaors to become ‘teach the test drones’, and bug money pricvatization contracts—excoose me, I meant to say ‘big money”, but the keyboard gremslins had it right when they possesed my fingers and typed in bug money. 

Anyhow, an Indiana newspaper says local school districts encountered massive problems with the latest devilish incarnation of standardized testing, AKA ISTEP.  Many school distsricts, which inncluded over 450,000 students, suffered major problems, from slow internet connections to network disconnections.

One district superintndent called this year’s test a total failure.  But, of course it is no a failure for the testing company with its multimillion dollar contract. The company STILL gets paid.If I were a dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy nut, I might say that the whole thing is designed to demolish the American education system and turn our kids in to braindead testbots, but others have said it better:

Evidence continues to mount demonstrating that high-stakes testing undermines, rather than enhances, efforts to improve education for all children.

The picture that emerges from several studies is of a nation severely hurting its educational system while failing to provide help to schools that need it, thereby harming the nation’s children – all in the name of “accountability.” High-stakes testing puts narrow, flawed instruments at the center of education and leads to intensive teaching to the exams, which does not result in real learning gains. At the same time, many children are less motivated, are denied a high-quality educational experience, and become more likely to leave school before graduating. While state-mandated exams have been the major culprit, the federal government’s imposition of high stakes on schools and districts will compound the problem (see stories on NCLB, pp 23- 28).

Amrein and Berliner
Last year, Professors Audrey Amrein and David Berliner of Arizona State University reported that gains states report on their own high-stakes tests do not correlate with results from other exams, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress or SAT and ACT college entrance tests (see Examiner, Spring 2002). In states with graduation tests, scores on these other exams often declined or grew less quickly relative to the nation as a whole. Their students were apparently less well prepared and less likely to go to college than their peers in non-high-stakes states. MOREHERE

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