NY Times Gerstner Letters

[William Cala <wcala@ROCHESTER.RR.COM>]

Here are the Gerstner letters in today's NY TIMES.

Bill


http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/opinion/L17TEST.html?pagewanted=print&position=top

       


      March 17, 2002
      Do All These Tests Help Students?
      o the Editor:

      Louis V. Gerstner Jr. ("The Tests We Know We Need," Op-Ed, March 14) wants kids to learn more. We all want that. However, his high-stakes, industrial-age testing approach has unintended consequences: more dropouts, teaching to the tests, loss of critical thinking skills and boring school lessons.

      Let's remember that the correlation between test scores and the real objectives of schooling - responsible citizens, productive workers and lifelong learners - is remarkably low. We need advancements in school practice, not retreats to a former era. 
      WAYNE JENNINGS
      St. Paul, March 14, 2002
      . 
      To the Editor:

      Re "The Tests We Know We Need," by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. (Op-Ed, March 14): 

      Parents, teachers and administrators who oppose state examinations are not anti-testing. Most seem to support testing as a vital part of the instructional process, as long as the tests are aligned with state academic content standards.

      The trouble is that standardized tests don't do this. They measure more what students bring to the classroom in the way of socioeconomic status and inherited ability than what students have learned in class. That is because standardized tests need to engineer a score-spread among test takers so children can be compared with their peers and with the control group used in creating the test. 

      The so-called No Child Left Behind Act of Congress is a great opportunity to improve public schools. But unless the tests being used are the appropriate tools, we will not achieve that goal.   
      WALT GARDNER
      Los Angeles, March 14, 2002
      The writer taught in public schools for 28 years. 
      . 
      To the Editor:

      Re "The Tests We Know We Need," by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. (Op- Ed, March 14):

      The problem with the argument for standardized testing is that it doesn't take into account the diverse academic growth of students. We need a flexible testing process that measures academic achievement in terms of where students have come from as opposed to where they are at. We should let individual schools create tests, with the state's compliance, that address the unique academic and cultural needs of their respective students.
      LARRY HOFFNER
      New York, March 14, 2002
      . 
      To the Editor:

      Re "The Tests We Know We Need," by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. (Op- Ed, March 14): I wish that my beginning calculus students had the skills that the Regents exams of yore required. The command of algebraic skills gives students confidence when attacking difficult problems.   
      LANCE W. SMALL
      La Jolla, Calif., March 14, 2002
      The writer is a professor of mathematics, University of California, San Diego.
      . 
      To the Editor:

      Re "The Tests We Know We Need," by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. (Op- Ed, March 14): Testing may be easy to measure, but does that make it the best mode of assessment? Testing may produce good workers for "our competitive position in the global marketplace," but does it make better citizens? Testing may raise standards, but does it ensure deep, long-term learning? 

      Testing for basic competency is acceptable because results can be used to aid students. But for higher levels of learning, there are more just and in-depth forms of assessment, like "performance assessment." This series of oral presentations may cost more for taxpayers and require more energy and expertise of our teachers and students, but isn't it worth it?   
      DOUG KNECHT
      San Francisco, March 14, 2002
      . 
      To the Editor:

      Re "Early Glimpse at SAT Score, for a Price" (news article, March 10): If you have an extra $13 lying around - two hours' wages for some housekeepers - you can get your SAT results eight days early. You can also parade them at school, and as I discovered in my clinical work, shame a poorer family into wondering if Sam's lunch money might not be better spent keeping up with the Joneses.

      Are not even standardized tests safe from the profit motive in American culture?  
      ELI MERRITT, M.D.
      Stanford, Calif., March 10, 2002
      The writer is a psychiatrist who treats adolescents.




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