Free Republic

Former Vice President Joe Biden committed Saturday to ending the use of standardized testing in public schools if he’s elected president in 2020. Biden made the commitment after a questioner at MSNBC’s Public Education Forum 2020 said standardized testing is “rooted in a history of racism and eugenics” and urged him to oppose their use in public schools. “Teaching has changed drastically over the last 10 to 20 years. Instead of being allowed to use their expertise to develop engaging curricula that’s culturally responsive, teachers are often forced to use a scripted curriculum that rushes children through without giving them...

Just about anyone who opposes the Common Core national curriculum standards, currently under serious fire in New York, is either a kook or a self-interested schemer. That, at least, is the impression an impartial observer would get from listening to many Core supporters. But the reality is quite the opposite: Education thinkers from across the political spectrum are taking on — and apart — the Core. In the Empire State, education commissioner John King infamously declared parents and concerned citizens opposed to the Core “special interests.” He made the accusation as he cancelled a series of town hall-style meetings scheduled...

The stress was overwhelming. For years, this veteran teacher had received exemplary evaluations but now was feeling pressured to raise her students' test scores. Her principal criticized her teaching and would show up to take notes on her class. She knew the material would be used against her one day. "My principal told me right to my face that she — she was feeling sorry for me because I don't know how to teach," the instructor said. The Los Angeles educator, who did not want to be identified, is one of about three dozen in the state accused this year...

RESEDA, LOS ANGELES -- The scores are in for Southern California students who took the annual STAR exam. Despite cutbacks and layoffs, scores are up for the ninth straight year. They're at their highest levels since the testing began. At a 10th-grade physiology class at Reseda High School, reading and language skills are combined with mathematics, and there are improved results in the latest statewide Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) examinations given to nearly 5 million students in grades 2 through 11. "Despite the cuts we are seeing that kind of significant progress. It's been steady over the last nine...

Standardized tests in English and math taken by students in New York State are about to become slightly less tricky. Beginning next spring, a new company, Pearson, will write the standardized tests that the Education Department gives to nearly all third through eighth graders. The department switched to Pearson this year after its contract with another company, CTB/McGraw-Hill, expired. The department has advised the new company that catch-all answer choices known for tripping up students, like “none of the above” and “all of the above” and already rare in the state’s tests, are now banned. Mirroring a national trend toward...

States are rushing for the No Child Left Behind exit door. Within hours of Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s announcement Monday that he will grant waivers from federal mandates, several states announced that they would apply for relief. Many others are expressing interest, pending the release of more details next month. Tennessee didn’t wait for Mr. Duncan’s news conference: The state sent its waiver request two weeks ago. The mad dash to escape high-stakes testing and gain more flexibility represents “a sense of desperation” among states, said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. “There’s no question...

A national scandal hit the news when Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal released a 413-page report describing how hundreds of Atlanta public school teachers and principals had been cheating during the past 10 years on standardized tests in order to falsely report that their schools were doing a good job and the kids were improving. A total of 178 teachers and principals (38 were principals), 82 of whom have already confessed, had fraudulently raised test scores so their schools would meet test targets set by the district and thereby qualify for federal funds. The truth came out after a 10-month inquiry...

The revamped SAT, expanded three years ago to include a writing test, predicts college success no better than the old test, and not quite as well as a student’s high school grades, according to studies released Tuesday by the College Board, which owns the test. “The changes made to the SAT did not substantially change how predictive the test is of first-year college performance,” the studies said. College Board officials presented their findings as “important and positive” confirmation of the test’s success. “The SAT continues to be an excellent predictor of how students will perform,” said Laurence Bunin, senior vice...

AUSTIN – House members tentatively voted Monday to scrap a 22-year-old requirement that high school students pass a standardized test to graduate – acting just days after a record number of seniors were told they won't get diplomas this month because they failed the test. A student testing bill approved by the House would shift schools to a new assessment program that would require students to take a dozen end-of-course exams in core subjects, with scores counting for 25 percent of the grade in each subject. Unlike an earlier Senate version of the legislation, however, students would not have to...

WASHINGTON — High school students are getting better grades and taking more challenging courses, but that apparent progress is not showing up on national math and reading tests. "The reality is that the results don't square," said Darvin Winick, chair of the independent National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the tests. Scores were released Thursday. Nearly 40 percent of high school seniors scored below the basic level on the math test. More than a quarter of seniors failed to reach the basic level on the reading test. Most educators think students ought to be able to work at the basic...

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Students who are learning English as a second language could soon have to take the regular state English exam. The federal government has informed New York State that some of its testing methods don't comply with the No Child Left Behind law. The finding applies to tests given to students with disabilities and those with limited proficiency in English. Richard Mills, the state education commissioner, was notified of the finding in a letter from Henry Johnson, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. The state could lose one-point-two million dollars if the problem isn't...

I am being hassled by my prof. about the evils of standardized testing. I am wondering if you can point me to anything about rebuttals to common liberal talking points on standardized testing. Also I would be interested in details on the NEA's position on NCLB (aka ESEA reauthorization) when it was up for passage in Congress in (I think) 2001.

At first, Jeanne Heifetz thought she had merely tripped over one of those quirks that occasionally worm their way into standardized tests. Words were missing from a book excerpt she was familiar with on a Regents English exam. But when she discovered a second extensively altered excerpt, she began to wonder, "If there were two, could there be more?" Was something sinister afoot? So, driven by curiosity and her antipathy to the exams, she rounded up a batch of recent Regents tests, which New York State requires public high school students to take to graduate, and started double-checking the excerpts...