Bill Evers on TV on Standardized Testing

I joined Sean Reardon, an associate professor at the Stanford School of Education, for a half-hour discussion on statewide testing of K-12 students in California.

Within the over-arching topic of testing, Sean & I discuss:

-- Can you test such matters as civic understanding and ...
creativity?
-- Can you have effective school reform in the absence of
data from student test scores?
-- Is money per se the key to effective
school reform
-- Is the racial achievement gap narrowing?
-- Is there a "stereotype threat" that leads girls and African-American and Latino
students to underperform on tests? And if so, what should be done about it?
-- Should California renew its accountability system in 2010? Should it retain its statewide grade-by-grade tests? Its high-school exit exam?

The program is entitled "Class Action." The show aired on Sunday, November 8, NBC Bay Area (KNTV, Channel 11), and the video has now been posted online. The host is KNTV news anchor Jessica Aguirre.

Should 2nd graders be tested (in Calif.)?

California state Sen. Loni Hancock has once again introduced legislation to end the testing of second graders.

Hancock cites too much "teaching to the test" and wants, she says, to reduce bureaucracy and to "let teachers teach."

But, Sen. Hancock, if I may address you directly, the principal purpose of state accountability tests is to see where schools are not performing well. We need to know this about how schools are doing with 2nd graders.