The need to “raise standards” and insist on “high expectations” for all schools and students is clear and obvious. But unfortunately, in practice, these fine ideas are often reduced to crude slogans: “Test scores are too low. Make them go up.” As Alfie Kohn said in his Boston Globe column: Poor Teaching for Poor Students:
“The implications are ominous for all students because standardized tests tend to measure the temporary acquisition of facts and skills, including the skill of test-taking itself, rather than meaningful understanding.”↧