Standardized Tests (For Colleges, Through K-12 Students) Is the Answer

An ill-conceived boycott could damage educational reform and undermine the Common Core standards.

Source: Opting Out of Standardized Tests Isn’t the Answer – The New York Times

I’m a former math professor. The k-12 problem is obvious – and testing can fix it, but not the way most people think.

The problem is not the teachers, or the students. It’s the teachers’ teachers.

Let me explain that problem, and why testing is critical to fixing it, and how a slight modification in testing can dramatically improve American education – at all levels.

First, the “professor” problem. (I won’t give examples here, but examples can all be found on my blog inside-higher-ed )

Most colleges have become so corrupt, that not only do they not really teach, but some even get “national need” grants to produce “American Ph.Ds.” and then are not held accountable for what they “produce”.

They produce these faux-PhD’s who become faux-professors – usually at regional state colleges – and they are not equipped to actually teach. (This is not the fault of the faux-PhD’s.) Thus future high school teachers don’t learn. Specific examples are on my blog.

Here is how testing can fix this problem.

Harvard’s Raj Chetty and his colleagues have shown that a good teacher in the lower grades can eventually make a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a class and that those teachers are discoverable through the testing of their students. (See my blog for more on their paper.)

Here is how to hold colleges accountable. Test k-12 students, then publish the performance of teachers – not by teacher, but by college. Then the tests serve several purposes.