Thursday's Teacher

I'm usually not a fan of Alphie Kohn because I don't like his dismissive attitude toward emotional need, but this is really a very good article and well worth reading. It comes from Education Week and it's about the ridiculous nature of standards. I totally agree.

Debunking the Case for National Standards

By Alfie Kohn

I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does. Throughout the 1990s, one state after another adopted prescriptive education standards enforced by frequent standardized testing, often of the high-stakes variety. A top-down, get-tough movement to impose “accountability” began to squeeze the life out of classrooms.

A decade ago, many of us thought we had hit bottom—until the floor gave way and we found ourselves in a basement we didn’t know existed. Now every state had to test every student every year in grades 3-8, judging them (and their schools) almost exclusively by test scores and hurting the schools that needed the most help. Ludicrously unrealistic proficiency targets suggested that the federal law responsible was intended to sabotage rather than improve public education.

For the rest of the article go HERE.