What's wrong with standardized tests?

Testing Optional

There are a lot of post secondary institutions that do not use standardized test scores as a part of their admissions. Fairtest has a list of schools that do not use SAT or ACT scores for admitting substantial numbers of students into bachelor degree programs. Fairtest also provides more information on the test-optional surge with this article that shows 40% (843) of all accredited, bachelor-degree granting schools in the United States have dropped their ACT/SAT admissions test requirements for all or may applicants.

The answer to subverting standardized testing is not through politicians or policy makers - real change will come from parents, teachers and students who stand up against standardized testing and refuse their cooperation.

When it comes to Standardized Test Season, if we all stopped doing things right and started to do the right things we would really improve education for all.

Fairtest.org

If you are not familiar with www.fairtest.org, you should be. Here is a brilliant commercial and recent article from FairTest.org.

Most Americans agree: We need a better way to assess students and evaluate schools. The latest Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll found that only one out of four respondents thought the No Child Left Behind law, the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, had helped schools in their community. Even U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., an original sponsor of that legislation and the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, agrees that NCLB may now be, as he put it, “the most negative brand” in the country...

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