Thanks for this – about time more of us address in various ways the impact on true education these standardised tests have.

In Australia, of course, parents have the option to withdraw their child from having to participate in NAPLAN tests, but even that is not made clear or known from official sites which, instead, perpetuate mis-information by stating that ‘all students’ participate in these (which is clearly untrue).

I have written a couple of posts on this, my most recent here:

http://blog.fourhares.com/01/03/2010/naplan-2010/

Someone famous once said that if we ignore history, we’re bound to repeat it. Having said that, there must be a way to present consumable information that, when tested on, doesn’t cram round students into square holes. I don’t agree with standardized testing, but if not standardized, with a common way to interpret results, then what? Some of the best teachers I ever had were creative, outside the box, innovators that knew what buttons to push, to see the lights come on, so to speak. Sadly, these teachers are bound by “teaching to the test” instead of delivering useful information on a broader spectrum. What ever happened to parents helping their children, by re-enforcing what’s taught in school? I can guess … they were “taught to the test” and they can’t help. More overly and getting completely off the topic, how about courses that teach our children life skills and how to effective speak, so that when they become President, they know how to pronounce a word like “nuclear”? Has anyone noticed how much talk radio has declined … “has went?”, “has gave?” This is our language people, it’s how we communicate, where do we go from here? Just sayin’ ….

I must disagree with the reply that call for more laws. I firmly believe that we need fewer laws, like those that require standardized testing. Schools are failing in more ways than testing, they’re creating automatons designed to fill factory position rather than solve problems creatively and think critically. For example we perpetuate the idea or myth of gifted versus ungifted children in grading systems and separate kids into strata, we don’t allow them to collaborate like in real world situations, etc. http://bestchildblog.org/?p=295