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Standardized
Minds was published by Perseus Books, at
www.perseusbooks.com.
Last month, Oregon parents received the state's first-ever
school report cards, courtesy of our Legislature.
In truth, the hastily assembled documents provided little
more than a rehashing of the state test scores released
last spring, coupled with attendance data.
A lot of publicity followed the report cards. Jefferson
supporters protested that school's "unacceptable" grade.
Realtors near Astor and Hollywood elementary schools, both
of which were rated "exceptional," celebrated the report,
which was sure to boost interest in those neighborhoods.
But hardly anybody asked whether the assessments have any
validity, particularly since the report cards place so much
weight on statewide testing scores.
Into this near-vacuum of analysis steps Boise, Idaho, author
Peter Sacks, whose book Standardized Minds, published
in February, chronicles the development of standardized
testing.
Drawing on mountains of research and three years of original
reporting, Sacks argues persuasively that standardized testing
is a ruse, a gimmick that meets the requirements of an apathetic
public and politicians who prefer to hold educators responsible
for the results of poverty rather than attacking such problems
themselves.
Ironically, Sacks, an avowed liberal, arrives at many of
the same conclusions as staunch testing critics like arch-conservative
state Rep. Ron Sunseri (R-Gresham) and charter-school advocate
Rob Kremer, albeit for different reasons.
Sacks traces the recent resurgence in testing to the 1983
report A Nation at Risk, which argued that the United
States was falling behind other nations because of our inferior
educational system (this report spawned Vera Katz's Educational
Act for the 21st Century). Sacks thinks the report was bogus.
"We weren't in a crisis then and we aren't in crisis now,"
he says.
In a work chock-full of disturbing analysis, perhaps the
most telling chapter follows the meteoric rise of Rudy Crew
from superintendent of Tacoma schools to the top job in
New York City, the nation's largest district. After examining
what really happened in Tacoma, Sacks makes the case that
Crew's ascendance was based on a suspect and unsustainable
spike in test scores.
But test results, no matter how suspect, always seem to
carry more weight than substance, Sacks told WW.
"There's a massive body of research that's unambiguous about
the shortcomings of testing," Sacks says. "And yet in the
face of that research, the mania for testing increases."
Politicians and the public have uncritically accepted a
monumental increase in high-stakes tests everywhere from
preschool to the National Football League. Even the most
widely accepted tests--such as the SAT and Graduate Record
Examination--Sacks says, have proven ineffective at predicting
academic or professional success.
Sacks suggests that rote learning and standardized testing
be de-emphasized. He favors the other pieces of Oregon's
school reform effort--such as the work samples, essays and
open-ended math problems.
"We should use tests for information," he says, "not to
rank, sort and punish."
That's why people who care about education--or even just
the billions of dollars this state spends on K-12 schools--should
read Sacks' book.
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Willamette Week | originally
published March 1,
2000
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