I am a member of AERA and I happen to be poking about the organization’s web site when this piece caught my eye. This is one of several “research points” made available to the general public to describe what research has to say about some important educational policy issue.
This comment concerns the issue of Standards and Tests. My interpretation is that contrary to what some might imagine educational practice is being guided more by tests than by standards. For example, the report cites research suggesting that “teachers allocate their time to emphasize the subjects on state tests at the expense of nontested subjects.”
The article also concludes that “the most challenging standards and objectives are the ones that are undersampled or omitted entirely … [and those] that call for high-level reasoning are often omitted in favor of much simpler cognitive processes.”
Don’t do what I say, do what I test!
See my own comments on this problem:
What I wish the National Techology Plan would have said
High Stakes Testing
