Success?

The Washington Post online is highlighting a headline, "Scores Up Since No Child Signed". This is a problem for me. It's a problem because test scores only tell a fraction of the picture. All year, all we've heard is that the kids must be ready for the test. And if we are thinking that this is a problem only since No Child was Left Behind, think again!

Test scores have been used incorrectly for years to judge schools, teachers, students and our education system. If we are going to base the success or failure of something, would it really only take one test?? When we test to see if a car is crash-worthy, we now have a front impact, side-impact, partial front impact... Only after passing all those tests and then some is a car given a safety rating. And even at that, if a car is built to pass a test but nothing else is added, is that car marketable?

There are many good things that have come out of No Child Left Behind, as well as many negative. In my own opinion, one of the worst is teaching to the test - it won't benefit anyone that my children were taught just enough to get a good test score. I hope I live to see a day when schools are rated on more than just two days of student performance and hours of practice testing!