The Common Core State Standards and accompanying K-12 assessments have recently sparked a fierce national backlash against testing. Sound educational testing and assessment are integral to good teaching and learning in classrooms and necessary for evaluating school performance and assuring quality in education. Rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, I propose a more considered, "mend, not end" approach to testing, assessment, and accountability in America's schools, with validity at the forefront of the conversation.
Alicia Koster on 14 Apr 14high-performing countries are moving away from forms of accountability based on blue-collar models of work organization (which accurately describes teaching in the United States) and toward professional models of accountability. Blue-collar models assume the work provides little in the way of intrinsic rewards and so requires the boss to provide carrots and sticks-mostly sticks- to keep the workforce on task. The blue-collar model also unites the workers against the bosses.
