I am pleased that Obama and his EDSEC are abandoning No Child Left Behind state requiements, but allowing states to develop their own standards. If teachers are the most influential indicator for student achievement, then we need to let teachers be themselves. They know what is best for their classes, supported by the larger school district, and reinforced by parents/guardians.

RE: college preparedness--not all students are college bound, but need the critical thinking skills to thrive in teh changing ecomomies.

Testing is not the problem with education. Teaching to a test is not a problem as long as a test is valid and reliable. Curriculum should involve benchmarks and those benchmarks should be tested. Social promotion is a problem. Social promotion allows students who have not mastered basic concepts to move on to the next grade level and take tests that they are not prepared for. Keep testing, end social promotion.

kafkateachfl, I had no problem getting on http//:UnitedOptOut.com.

I`m a retired teacher of 27 years.I`m also an Industrial designer that got into teaching by the back door.When I started teaching,I did my own sort of "testing" which worked GREAT in finding out if my students had learded what was taught.In 1985 the state of New York came along and said we don`t care how well your program working ,every one in the state will teach the same thing.What the state ed.department thought was important was what and how things should be taught.Of course the test came along with that-50 multi choice question test.Nothing to do with had the student learded to think,do problem solving,learning how to work with others,etc.

It was at this point that I started to get involved with education reform.I worked for the last 9 years that I taught researching the brain and how it functions and what would be the best way to not only get knowledge into the brain,but be able to retain it and pull it out when needed.

The whole system of education has to change if we are to be successful as a nation.

You may go to education4real.com if want to see some ideas that could get us there.

If it wasn't for the AIMS testing in Arizona, I would have had a scholarship that would have helped me financially dramatically in college. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I exceeded the standards in all 3 tests, because my GPA was low, I didn't qualify for the scholarship. This needs to be fixed. I did my part, and I got ripped off in my opinion.

No Child Left Behind actually left mny children behind. I am elated that process is gone. We must be about the Business of Education with a 1 on 1 concept. Every child learns differently. So lets start living this dream so they the children can learn and SUCCEED!

Please forgive my ignorance about testing since I do not have school-age children.  I graduated from college and, while in school, all of our tests were given to us in the same format that our national licensing exam would be.  This was done to prepare us for that exam.  We are tested based on a minimum standard that a national professional board has established.  In order to receive my professional license, I have to score the minimum score based on my performance on this exam. 

My question is: How is this process different (or similar) to what you are all talking about?  Who establishes the minimum requirements for the exams that your students take?  Are these minimum requirements determined at a national level, a state level or a local level?  How do these tests (ex: format, content, etc.) prohibit or stall your creative process in teaching your students the subjects that you teach?  Do you think that a national standard should be set?  If so, how would it be determined how if students are meeting the minimum requirements?

Thank you for entertaining my ignorance to this topic, but do appreciate your input.

I understand why some might be in favor of standardized testing... the key word being "standardized." For too many years the U.S. education system got away with marginalizing students of color, underrepresented populations, the poor and children from non-traditional households through subjective tests. But, as Wayne Au wrote in "Unequal by Design," the tests haven't changed the marginalization of populations throughout the country.

Add to that the fact that tests are only a snapshot of how a student performed on a given day at a given time - results should not be used to evaluate a teacher's effectiveness or on which to base funding. What if the child didn't have breakfast? What if they'd been abused on their way to school? What if they were sick? What if the room was too hot/too cold? What if the child had moved (not uncommon in our recent economic climate) and hadn't been taught the subject curriculum covered in the test.

Standardized testing is just another symptom of a broken system.

At the end of the day, Teachers feel disempowered. Students feel apathetic. Parents feel frustrated. Taxpayers are in the dark. 
 

So what do you do?  Call Vantage Learning! they are the pioneers of Adaptive Learning Technology. The only one of its kind---that WORKS.   Our clients consist of Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and Duke University to name a few.

 Unlike most platforms, Vantage Learning has built a world-class adaptive testing enabled application used for conducting continuous cross curriculum student skill assessment. 

The SPMS ( Student Progess Monitoring Systems) supports the formative assessment process by providing a fundamental, systematic approach to educational real-time delivery of differentiated instruction.  SPMS contains a powerful modules that assess, predict, collect, report, and position content and data immediately and intelligently.  Allowing teachers to quickly, easily, and accurately determined a students proficiency level in 30 questions.

  Our adaptive platforms are like a GPS for each student, creating a customized educational road map from where they are......to the destination.  This allows for all stakeholders(educators,parents,and students) to efficiently and effectively communicate about students progress.  Vantage has created a "Marshall Plan" for education.  

To find out more please contact me at pnash@vantage.com.   

Thanks

I think this topic is very interesting, and I’ve just read a post about the relation between happiness and triumph. The more happy is a child, the more success he or she will have in their professional career. It’s not necessary to tell off the children when their notes are not as good as their parents or teachers would like, because there are other ways to help in the children education. For example, training them in emotional intelligence. If you want to know more about that, I let you the link to this post titled “Happiness, Talent and Triumph” from iDidactic’s Blog. Enjoy it!