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Education is the Key

How Standardized Testing Damages Education, by the National Center for Fair and Open Testing

This source aims to answer nine key commonly asked questions about standardized testing. The article opens up with an intro to the "No Child Left Behind era", describing the "unprecedented expansion of standardized testing and test misuse". Going further, the authors address the initial "goals" of NCLB, including the ability to evaluate if children are "ready for school".

The article invites naysayers that argue that standardized test scores are valid in being used for these goals, and then refutes their claims with a nine-year-study by the National Research Council. The study points out the negative consequences of utilizing standardized test scores, including "narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, pushing students out of school, driving teachers out of the profession, and undermining student engagement and school climate".

The article then goes on to point out that students who come from low-income backgrounds, especially minority groups, tend to suffer the most from standardized testing. They, along with disabled and English-learning students, are subject to a "dumbed-down" curriculum that fails to actively stimulate both their creativity and intelligence.

Continuing further, the article claims that standardized testing provides minimal accountability for teacher quality, and that it is only "one part of a comprehensive assessment system". Overall, there are other methods of assessment that are more reliable.

"How Standardized Testing Damages Education." //The National Center for Fair & Open Testing//. 28 Aug. 2007. Web. 17 June 2014.