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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Once the Dept. of Ed. made the testing high stakes, the kiss of doom was sealed. When the tests become the means by which funds are given or taken away or school choice is to be granted or busing will become an issue or tutoring is mandatory or teachers are to be called onto the carpet, it's a HUGE problem.

So what happened? The tests were watered down. The "data collection" rules were changed (to a 3 year average from a 1 year). They did anything and everything to make the statistics "work" for both the Dept. of Education and the local districts. Because nobody wanted to admit that testing was not the way to improve the schools (anything else would be a lot more difficult and how could they let the taxpayers and voters know that they had failed). Meanwhile the teachers were totally aware of the game and the parents were not far behind. Employers and taxpayers were livid. Is it any wonder that people were mad? When they made education into a political football they ruined it. Now everything is politicized and look where we are. [/quote]

The tests were driven by state-level accountability and bipartisan legislation like NCLB, not Department of Ed passing random edicts from on high.  Also, testing isn't inherently "doom."  It's a diagnostic tool.  The problem is in how states and districts use test results, typically for punitive measures rather than improving the curriculum and instruction.

Also, NAEP wasn't "watered down" and 3 year averages aren't "watering down" - all it does is smooth out temporary anomalies like a bad year due to a local disruption - or the pandemic.  NAEP is still the gold standard for measuring proficiency, and is independent of state tinkering and it is what prevents states from gaming results.

It's true that testing alone doesn't improve schools.  But testing DOES provide transparency.  NAEP revealed persistent achievement gaps by income and race that otherwise would have been hidden.  Also, what's your alternative?  No testing means no accountability, and parents, taxpayers and others would not have a good way to measure how schools are serving students compared to others.

"Teachers knew it was a game, parents caught on, employers were livid" - sounds like anecdotes and hyperbole.  I don't know of any employers who hire based on 4th grade test scores, they care more about long term skills, which testing tracks.  Parents WANT transparent data, otherwise they'd be in the dark on how well or poorly their kid's school is performing.

And politicization isn't new - Brown v Board of Education and other things have been part of the education game for years.  But that said, blaming politicization solely on Department of Ed ignores all of the insane things happening at the state level where it comes to curriculum, funding and local control.  I for one do not want my state to mandate that schools be named after Charlie Kirk or that teaching about slavery or climate science be eliminated to be replaced with school prayer.  What's going on there is far worse than anything I see Department of Education doing.[/quote]

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