Reply #4: Duncan is "know-nothingism" personified. Re testing: [View All]

>>>>This is a nation-wide problem, created by the importance place on standardized testing. Some schools spend more money each year on practice test materials. Other schools use standardized test schools as the sole measure of rather or not a child advances to the next grade. The test has become the end, not the means to an end.>>>>



Agreed. I do NOT object to... and in fact FAVOR.... standardized tests. ( *Good* ones.)

I object to standardized test PREP. Test prep on school time defeats the *purpose* of testing....which is to measure the actual level of ability and degree of knowledge attained by a given student while allowing for comparisons of objective results OVER TIME to be able to measure *progress*, or lack thereof.

The frenzied push for egregious standardized testing and test PREP is purely political in nature. It is fundamentally dishonest. It yields false results (e.g Test-prepped kids will test artificially high.) It impedes... and does not facilitate... actual learning.