Arne Duncan's Brave New Tests

I posted a comment following Linda-Darling Hammond's speech (posted on Valerie Strauss' answer-sheet. Darling-Hammond said this: We are here because we want to prepare children for the 21st century world they are entering, not for an endless series of multiple-choice tests.

My comment:

skrashen

Education secretary Arne Duncan claims he is also against fill-in-the-blank "bubble" tests. In a speech "Beyond the bubble tests," he described his plan for new assessments that will "provide students with realistic, complex performance tasks, immediate feedback, computer adaptive testing, and incorporate accommodations for a range of students" that will focus on "higher-order teaching skills."
The problem is that his brave new tests will cost a fortune (they require everybody to be connected the internet, which will cost billions) and are completely unsupported by studies. In other words, the entire student population of the US is being used as experimental subjects. If the new tests fail, the testing companies still win, and will eagerly begin planning National Test 2.0.
Also there will be lots of them, far more testing than ever.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/darling-hammond-the-mess-we-are-in/2011/07/31/gIQAXWSIoI_blog.html#weighIn