How many kids annually don pass 6th grade math standardized tests?
F for Assessment: Standardized Testing Fails. For the last four decades, students’ scores on standardized tests have increasingly been regarded as the most meaningful evidence for evaluating U.S. schools. Most Americans, indeed, believe students’ standardized test performances are the only legitimate indicator of a school’s instructional effectiveness. Yet, although test-based evaluations of schools seem to occur almost as often as fire drills, in most instances these evaluations are inaccurate. That’s because the standardized tests employed are flat-out wrong. Standardized tests have been used to evaluate America’s schools since 1965, when the U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) became law. That statute provided for the first major infusion of federal funds into local schools and required educators to produce test-based evidence that ESEA dollars were well spent. But how, you might ask, could a practice that’s been so prevalent for so long be mistaken? Just think back t
