Re: A request for an explanation from a Congressional staffer

[Csubstance@aol.com]

7/26/07

Ken (and others):

Only by limiting the entire concept of assessment to corporate created 
so-called "standardized" tests could Toch come up with that particular number, so it 
is probably from the marketing department of one of the firms that produces 
and sells secret multiple choice computer scored so-called "standardized" tests.

Depending upon the school and year, every state and school district is 
spending a significant percentage of its budget on various kinds of assessment, from 
teacher-made tests to things like the Advanced Placement exams. For example, 
over the past three years, my son (who just graduated from Chicago's Whitney 
Young (public) High School) took 11 AP exams, in subjects ranging from calculus 
(both) to English (both) and "passed" all of them (with scores of 5 or 4, on 
two out of the 11). Now some of the AP costs in Chicago are subsidized. All of 
the monitoring time comes from the regular budget (the teacher cost). 

The way Toch presents that little piece of data is typical of the way 
propagandists for corporate "school reform" present any data and most information. If 
it is not their tests, it's not testing.

By that definitional way or rearranging the world, they've gotten a way with 
a lot of nonsense lately. 

By the way, after having read the Toch essay I would not have passed it 
along. Corporate propaganda is corporate propaganda. That was just a more 
sophisticated example of the genre. All of the assumptions are based on the singular 
notion that some kind of external test will do a better job at measuring the 
learning of children in our public schools than the traditional assessments we've 
all used from pre-K through 12th grade for years.

Of course, that is nonsense.

And teacher bashing.

It merely shows how far we've gone in the direction of widespread teacher 
bashing to even share this stuff.

George Schmidt
Editor, Substance
Chicago

www.Substancnews.com

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