OK. Obama/Duncan/Gates School "Reform" Model: The results Are IN !!! Today's NYT: P. A1

[reACTIONary]

92. dumb or hungry?

RE: You system calls them dumb instead of calling them hungry

Absolutely not true. A test tells us whether or not a student has learned a particular body of knowledge, it does not tell us why or why not without further investigation and study.

RE: Any test evaluates far more than the subject area of the test.

I don't think that's true. It is true that a student's mastery of a specific subject area is affected by more than just one factor, and a subject-matter test alone can not determine and differentiate the various factors that affected a student's learning. That doesn't mean that it isn't evaluating the student's level of attainment - that means it isn't evaluating the cause of the student's level of attainment. But the cause isn't what it is supposed to evaluate.

RE: As such, it's not possible to design a test which effectively evaluates the student in that subject.

I think that asking kids questions concerning a body of knowledge and evaluating their answers is definitely an effective way to understand how much they have or haven't learned about a particular subject. I can't think of any other way to do it. It may have to be done more than once, it may require establishing the proper testing environment, and it may mean using a creative technique like the "portfolio system". But in the end, what you do and don't know can be determined by others through communication and demonstration.

Do you seriously believe that evaluation of educational attainment isn't at all possible? And if you do believe that it is somehow possible, what technique would be effective and yet not be subject to all of the factors that you have mentioned concerning standardized tests?