I have this analogy in my head about testing, so I'm going to try it out here. I think NCLB testing is like the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. In the story two conmen convince the emperor that they have made him a magnificent new suit of clothes. He parades around naked but everyone is too afraid to say he has nothing on because the conmen said only intelligent people can see the clothes.
The testing promoters are like the conmen. They have convinced everyone that intelligent people see the benefit to students of all the endless testing. And the correlation of test scores to teacher ability. But the emperor is naked. The correlation of test scores is more accurately related to income level. Schools in wealthier areas do better on the tests. In our state there are seven levels to describe school performance on the tests. Four of the levels are negative. How fair is that?
The state that started all this testing frenzy has been shown to have fudged on the results. The only group to benefit from all the testing is....wait for it....THE TESTING COMPANIES!
The public has been deceived. Schools have been labeled failures. Teachers have been vilified.
Where is the honest little boy who will say, "The emperor has NO clothes!"?
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