We want to be the best test takers in the world!

You know, everyone makes fun of this -- but what other option is there?
How else can you measure the overall success of an educational system
than
by using standardized tests?

Everyone hates 'em -- but no one has come up with a viable alternative
for
measuring what someone has learned.

No easy answers that's for sure. What I really object to is the emphasis
placed on these standardized tests. It seems they are the sole determinant
and they are too unreliable to be given so much weight.

Okay, so...what other options *are* there? We're talking about millions
of students here -- how can we assess our national educational system
without some sort of standardized testing?

There are no other ways to fairly do it. And, if people are dead-set
against standardized testing, the only other viable alternative is to tell
the Feds to stay out of education altogether, and leave it up to the states.
But then you end up with a national disgrace like the East St. Louis
district... (And hundreds of others like it.)

There are no easy answers. No Child Left Behind is, at least, an attempt to
fix the system. But it's going to need some significant modifications to
make it work.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

For what it's worth, you may remember that piece of paper in your pocket that
grants you the right to fly had as one of its components a written test. Would
you want to flay as a passanger with someone as PIC who could NOT pass the
written? I'm talking about the general case, not some special case you might
use as an example.

The issue of testing, I think, has to do with test design, as opposed to
testing or not testing. A well designed test in fact measures what it's
supposed to, without too many false positives or false negatives. I would
rather have a panel of peer selected experts design a test to determine how
well for example a teacher's class is learning instead of hearing that
teacher's opinion, or even that teacher's supervisor's opinion.

Arm's length objective testing is pretty much like how the best musicans are
sometimes selected - they perform behind a screen for the review committee.

I know, I know, algebra should not be performed in public.