Standardized Testing: The Monster that Ate American Education
None of the characteristics that are important for thriving in the world of the twenty-first century are encouraged by standardized testing, argues Diane Ravitch, one of the most respected educational historians in the world. What we need is a generation of students who can think critically and creatively.
Transcript
Diane Ravitch: The rise of the testing movement can be traced through the twentieth century. But what we’re living now with is not just the rise of the testing movement but the overwhelming dominance of testing. It has become almost like the monster that ate American education. And we are so test-obsessed that schools are being closed based on test scores, even when those test scores reflect that the schools have a heavy enrollment of very poor kids or heavy enrollment of children with disabilities and children with all kinds of other needs. We don't look at the needs. We don't evaluate the problems that need to be solved in that school. We just say "These are low scores. We have to close the school."
I am very deeply concerned about what years and years of standardized testing does to
