Popham On Testing

Provocative article by James Popham in Edutopia, the newsletter of the George Lucas Educational Foundation decrying some of today’s testing policies. But, Popham’s complaints seem to have more to do with the expansionist nature of today’s standards (which were originally intended to have the distilling effect he seeks) and consequently assessments than with just testing itself.

In terms of unaligned or “insensitive tests” add this as one more reason the Bush Administration’s unwillingness to seriously invest in state assessments is inexplicable. Sure, the testing industry is pretty stretched right now but more money would help with quality.