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Educational assessment  in schools can, in "theory," provide benefits.
(And certainly has able and articulate champions in folks like Alan
Friedman.)

However, reporting on the ground as a parent of four children in our own
public school district on Long Island (an area of the U.S. with, generally
speaking, very highly rated schools) I find the "practice" of testing
corrosive, and downright antithetical to many of the values that I, as a
museum worker, hold dear.

The practice of educational assessment has effectively squeezed anything
not on a test out of the school day --- even more so in just the past few
years.  I can see this not only observationally in the differences between
the lessons and assignments over the years from my oldest and youngest
children, but directly (measurably!) in the differences in the amount of
time now spent on testing, pre-testing (and to my disgust, pre-pre-testing.)

Testing in schools is used not only to "measure" student progress, but also
as a political bludgeon tied to (wait for it) MONEY.
Aside from the ways testing is used to control school funding, the "testing
materials"  and "test prep" business is BIG business.  Schools are spending
more money from their increasingly limited budgets on these execrable test
prep workbooks and the like. Schools are forced to decide how to allocate
resources (time and money) between "test related" and "non test related"
programs, like art, music, and astoundingly, recess!
This directly impacts decisions on whether to take time for museum field
trips, for example.

Certainly we can all agree that many parts of the U.S. public school system
can be improved.  But I can't help but wonder if the "cures" being provided
aren't worse than many of the underlying "ailments."









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Paul Orselli, President and Chief Instigator

Paul Orselli Workshop (POW!)
World Headquarters
1684 Victoria Street
Baldwin, NY  11510

(516) 223-1043

POW! website
<http://www.orselli.net>

Exhibit tips + tricks at the ExhibiTricks blog:
<http://blog.orselli.net/>

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