I’ve spent several days of meetings where I heard educators talk about AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) and PSSA scores and how to make sure kids pass the state tests. We talked about the flaws in the tests — both the implementation flaws and the more serious pedagogical flaws. And we talked about how these tests are changing the culture of our schools and changing what we’re able to do. And I looked at questions from recent 4th grade standardardized literacy and math tests and I realized that there was a very good chance I would get several of the questions wrong — because I felt that there was more than one correct answer or because I felt the question was poorly worded or because (in math) the concept was one that I, as an adult who actually does practical math on a fairly regular basis, hadn’t seen in years.

And I was reminded of a challenge I’ve seen others like Ann Cook and Debbie Meier offer time and time again:

For all those politicians and educational commentators who trumpet these tests as the saving grace for education:

Take the test.

Let’s see every politican who voted for NCLB take the graduation standard tests in their state. And then, let’s have every newspaper publish their scores on the tests so they can be judged just as schools are judged when the papers publish their scores.

I don’t think we’d see that much support for the standardized-test movement after that.