Why knocking standardized tests is bad blogger policy
It’s easier to build than destroy.
That’s why every time an education pundit says standardized tests are not a good way to measure student achievement, that pundit NEEDS TO OFFER A SUPERIOR ASSESSMENT METHOD that is specific and measurable. Otherwise, those criticisms should be read as “I want to keep the status quo in education.”
Very good, well-meaning people, even edu-revolution proponents tend to say standardized tests are inadequate. That’s like saying an exercise routine is inadequate to assure health.
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There’s a pregnant pause after such a statements that ought to be filled with some prescription…. What more is needed? a diet? doctors visits? yoga? If you leave it at the pregnant pause, it sounds more like a justification to give up on the project altogether.
So when one of my favorite edtech bloggers sideswipes standardized testing, my fingers get itchy.
On Wednesday, Hacking Education author Audrey Watters predicted that “data-driven” would become a buzz word for edtech in 2011. I agree that the use of hard data to evaluate educational systems will hit an inflection point this year. But I take issue with her caveat:
Of course, we’ve seen the demands for data in education for a long time now, with the push for standardized testing as the premier method for gauging student achievement. And now, we’re seeing moves to use these test scores — “data” — to measure teachers’ performance in turn. Admittedly I am unconvinced that standardized test scores say all that much about student achievement, and so I tend to resist the idea that data we use to be “data-driven” is solely reliant on test scores.
Fine, but what else do we throw in the mix? If we’ve got a one-legged stool, throwing stones at that leg isn’t going to help.
