The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don’t Tell You What You Think They Do by Phillip Harris, Bruce M. Smith, and Joan Harris (with a little help from ten of their friends) is a MUST read for anyone fighting the current testing system.
Phillip Harris
- Phillip is executive director of the Association for Educational Communications & Technology. He was a faculty member of the faculty of Indiana University for twenty-two years in Psychology and Education.
- Bruce M. Smith was a member of the editorial staff of the Phi Delta Kappan for 27 years and he retired as editor-in-chief in 2008.
- Joan Harris has taught grades one through three for 25 plus years. In 1997 she was recognized by the National Association for the Education of Young Children as the outstanding teacher of the year.
The Myths They Debunk
- High test scores at a school means it has high achievement. Test scores provide objective achievement information. Rewards and punishments based on tests motivate. Improved test scores imply improved learning. All valuable content is tested. Standardized test scores are the best form of assessment. If you move to a district with high scores you will do better.
It’s An Emergency
- The authors believe that our schools are under attack by the tests that continue to seep into our schools. They sap the energy and enthusiasm of educators and drain the life from children’s learning. Some of the motivation is commercial and some is caused by “the tyranny of good intentions.” In this book they hope to persuade you of their case and arm you with some basic understanding of standardized tests and the mythical assumptions that underlie them that are used to make policy and drive practice. The lives of our children and our future is at stake. Our schools do have problems, but they won’t be fixed by another truckload of test scores.
Share this:
DrDougGreen.com If you like the summary, buy the book
Tags: Bruce Smith, Joan Harris, NCLB, Obama Blueprint, Phillip Harris, Standardized Testing
Every educator, administrator, government bureaucrat, and union leader should be required to read this book, and then tested on it in the same manner that our children are tested today. Better yet, this should probably be a seminar topic for required academic continuing education. Chart 14, “New Ideas for Genuine Accountability” brushes the surface and wets our appetite on a new direction and sounds like it could be the basis for Harris, Smith, and Harris’s next book.
[…] Doug Green has an excellent summary of the myths and negative consequences of standardized testingbased on a book on his site: […]
Standardized tests aren’t really meant to measure student achievement, but to provide an excuse to dump teachers.
Fantastic submit, very informative. I’m wondering why the opposite experts of this sector do not understand this. You should proceed your writing. I am confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!|What’s Taking place i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I’ve found It absolutely helpful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to contribute & assist other customers like its aided me. Good job.
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this excellent blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this website with my Facebook
group. Chat soon!
We are a bunch of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with useful info to work on. You have done a formidable activity and our entire community will probably be grateful to you.
Having read this I thought it was very enlightening. I appreciate you
finding the time and energy to put this short article together.
I once again find myself spending a significant amount of time blth reading
and leaving comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile!
Je ѕuis arrivé sur ce blοg par hasard : je ne lе regrette pas du tot !!!
Also visit my web ѕіte; tubexamateur.com
This will get you traffic to your site and make money.
A VPN creates an encrypted connection to a third-party server, and all your Internet traffic is routed through
that server. It’s probably some mix of the two, so I have to give
him props for not going too far in either direction.
Hey! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog.
Is it difficult to set up your own blog?
I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty
quick. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure
where to begin. Do you have any tips or suggestions?
Thanks
My blog is a WordPress blog that I paid a guy at Gorges.US to modify.
You can, however, go to WordPress.com and create your own for free.
I hope you like my work and please share with your network.
Excellent blog post. I definitely love this site. Thanks!
Wow, marvelous blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is fantastic,
let alone the content!
Here is my web page: legal adviser
Nice blog here! Also your site loads up very fast! What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my website loaded up as quickly as yours lol|
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with
the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to find out if its a problem
on my end or if it’s the blog. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Check out my blog post … lawyer search by name (Taylor)
Taylor: What kind of problems are you having? Dr. Doug
It’s Gorges in Ithaca, NY. You can click through to them with the icon at the bottom right of any page.