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Article: Halt the testing madness: before accepting overtesting as inevitable, try debating the issue with parents and students. (Speaking Out).(Column)
- Article from:
- District Administration
- Article date:
- July 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Professional Media Group LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Our schools are in the midst of a mass panic not seen since the swine flu epidemic--standardized testing. We are swept up in a wave of "the tests are important," "parents demand accountability," and "they make us do it." This uncritical groupthink will destroy public education unless we wake up, form alliances and tell the public the truth.
Democrats and Republicans alike caught a bad case of testing fever and voted overwhelmingly for No Child Left Behind, perhaps the greatest intrusion of the federal government into local education in history. NCLB will compel states to test their students every year from grades 2-12 in order to rank schools and shut many of ...