For many parents, who don’t have the luxury of seeing their children’s academics progress on a daily basis and who have little to compare what they do see against, standardized tests provide important feedback and reassurance that their child’s academics are on course. For other parents, these tests are yet another aspect of an ever encroaching federal bureaucracy that is ever increasing its control of their child. They also worry that the pressure put on schools to produce high test scores has resulted in a tendency to “teach to the test” at the cost of sacrificing true learning on the alter of worshiping a narrow band of isolated facts.
We are appalled by the audacity of the clearly unconstitutional (not to mention detrimental) federal involvement in education, and we refuse to confine our teaching by the restraints accompanying an over emphasis on test scores. And make no mistake - the demopublicans are just as lustful of total control over the lives of our children as the republicrats are! There is no place for the fedgov in education - none. Unless there is good reason for even state or local government interference, we respect the parental right to abstain from testing. Yet, that said, standardized tests, while potentially limiting, are a valuable tool in plotting an academic course for most children. The vast majority of our students score very well on annual assessments because true intelligence is flourishing rather than because we place an inflated value on them.