Well, testing season seems to have gotten off to a smooth, quiet start, hasn't it?

The news media are flooded with stories of parents "opting out" of statewide tests and state legislators considering bills that would affirm parents' rights to do so. Many of these stories are overblown and focus on a vocal minority. However, they reflect the reality that many people are concerned about an over-emphasis on tests and what they are doing to classroom instruction.

As I noted in another forum, if these tests were like the ones most states had administered in the past decade, I might be more sympathetic to the opt-outers. Those tests tended to be primarily multiple-choice, measure low-level knowledge and skills, and provide limited information to teachers and parents. And because the tests were the primary--or sole--means of judging school performance in accountability systems, many schools devoted a considerable amount of classroom time to test-prep exercises that did little to enhance learning and practice or "benchmark" tests to see if students were on track to perform well on the ones that counted.

Click here to continue reading.