Too Many Standardized Tests

Last week, The New York Times reported on the pronouncement by President Obama concerning the over use of testing by school districts around the U S.. It was announced that the decision what tests to use and how often had to be uncoupled from the No Child Left Behind legislation and federal funding procedures.  It went on to suggest that the decisions about testing ought to be left in the hands of the classroom teachers who know best how his or her students are learning and how to assess the quality of that learning. There have been subsequent reports on how this news was received by educators around the country.  A previous Secretary of Education reinforced the wisdom of that pronouncement and condemned the use of assessments over-all and reinforced the role of the classroom teacher. As I read the various reports and the editorials that accompanied them, I reflected on the fact that, time and time again, the single biggest complaint about associate teachers of pre-service teacher candidates is that they are totally unprepared to assess properly while they teach. That points out and highlights the weakness of all teachers concerning assessment strategies used in the classroom. In lesson plans I have read over and over my students atttempt to use the same pencil and paper tests that have been used since before I went to school.  How can we presume to leave something as important as the aggregate assessment of student growth in school districts to teachers who themselves know very little about how properly to assess students on a day to day basis. I agree with the suggestion that there is a limit to the number of standardized tests that ought to be administered to students but to suggest that classroom teachers ought to be doing this themselves without also calling for on-going professional learning for teachers about assessment and how to match assessment strategies to students and subjects does not make for any enhancements of student learning over-all.  AS I tell my students, we assess for growth and if we can't do the assessments right, then how can we tell whether the students are learning or not?