Ed Reformers Turn Against Testing, But For the Wrong Reason

Chalkbeat reports that education reformers turned against standardized testing, but not for the reason you and I are against standardized testing. 

They say standardized testing goes against personalized learning.

I say both are dateless examples of education reform that have turned K-12 education on its head with nothing to show for it.

Matt Barnum for Chalkbeat writes:

Those comments reflected the prevailing mood at the event, where testing was criticized for being at odds with the increasingly popular “personalized learning” models that allow students to progress through material at their own pace. Others, including Ferebee, complained that in their states, testing regimens have changed too frequently to be useful.

Such rumblings of discontent with testing are not entirely new among the education reform crowd. Free-market-oriented advocates like Betsy DeVos, for example, have downplayed test scores, suggesting the more important issue is whether parents are satisfied with a given school.

But the pervasiveness of the complaints about testing was striking, given that many education reform advocates have long championed using test scores to measure schools and teachers and then push them to improve.

It would be great to see they are wisening up to the foolishness of the testing and accountability method of education reform, but, unfortunately, they are jumping to another top-down education reform which is just as foolish since it’s the shiny new thing in the education reform universe.