She Can Dish it Out, But Did She Ever Take It?

BrooklynDodger, who for the record has never taught below the college level, felt from the jump that the latest rage for testing in the primary and secondary schools was a major bogosity.

Why standardized tests instead of the grades teachers give? The premise is that teachers tank it in the classroom, then dry lab the grades to pass the kids on. The test is needed to stop this. In this model, the students are victims of the teachers. Also the tests are supposed to measure performance of the schools and school systems.

What happens when the kids have to take standardized tests? First, the individual kid, supposedly the victim in this model, is the one who gets the failing grade.

To measure educational performance, you'd want a stratified random sample of the kids to take a test, not get into a situation where the teachers and administrators - the target of this exercise - are incented to discourage certain students from taking the test.

Tests come at the cost not only of the test, but also lost instructional time. Each school week lost to testing is probably 4% of instructional time, not to mention any time out from real curriculum for test preparation.

At least in high school, kids already have tests to take - PSAT, SAT, ACT. Rather than make up new tests, why not have all the kids take the ones which lead to college. At least they are given on Saturday, and don't cost that much.

Let's examine the drum major in this march of the lemmings, described below. Based on her University of Houston degree, probably Margaret Spelling didn't crush her SAT's. And based on her later training, it's not clear whether it was her scores on GRE's or LSAT's or her lack of them were what held her back.

People who demand these tests should have to take the tests themselves. We already know about GW's SAT's, but what about Spelling?

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Spellings: Testing to remain at core of school reform


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The woman who helped craft the No Child Left Behind law, Margaret Spellings, is now its chief enforcer. And anyone who thinks she might scale back the standardized testing it requires is going to be disappointed.
To the new education secretary, testing is at the heart of the plan to ensure that all students can read and do math. Her mission, in fact, is to lead President Bush's drive to expand testing in high school.

The current federal law -- which Spellings helped write when she was Bush's domestic policy chief -- requires annual state testing in grades three to eight, and once during grades 10 to 12
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What is takes in the way of education to be Secretary of Education.

According to the Education Department website biography of Margaret Spellings, the newly confirmed secretary of the Department of Education, has the following schooling:

“Born in Michigan in 1957, Spellings moved with her family at a young age to Houston, Texas, where she attended public schools. She graduated from the University of Houston in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in political science and journalism.”

BrooklynDodger assumes they didn’t deliberately omit her graduate training? Maybe experience is what qualifies her for the job?

“Prior to her White House appointment, Spellings worked for six years as Governor George W. Bush's Senior Advisor with responsibility for developing and implementing the Governor's education policy. Her work included the Texas Reading Initiative, the Student Success Initiative to eliminate social promotion, and the nation's strongest school assessment and accountability system. She also made recommendations to the Governor for key gubernatorial appointments. Previously, Spellings served as associate executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards.”