All the tests will do is measure kids' performance.
"Many of those commercial programs even have multiple-choice questions to measure kids' absorption of the correct virtues," said Alfie Kohn, an author who writes about moral education.
For about six hundred dollars a week, parents get weekly e-mails from their children's counsellors and reports measuring their kids' progress on a variety of metrics — from jump shots to progress at building a car to success at being a community member.
"As we shifted to start measuring how kids were performing, maybe that pendulum swung too far – and we started to ignore art, athletics and ignored how to engage kids in a positive way," he said.
Today's half-measure — kids yes, adults no — is irrational.
"In moderation, smart strategic tests can help us measure our kids' progress in school," he said, before outlining the ways in which the education department would seek to temper its hitherto pro-testing policies.
In moderation, I believe smart, strategic tests can help us measure our kids' progress in school.
There is questionable wisdom in entrusting a for-profit corporation with measuring how well kids learn to read, write, compute, and think, the last of which is especially unlikely to be accurately gauged by industrial-scale metrics.
Yet regardless of Washington's 6-6 record or what might happen Thursday, many people will always measure the kid from Ferndale by more than touchdowns and passing efficiency.
It's easy to measure a kid's understanding of basic math concepts through games: solve an equation to get the frog to leap to the lily pad, and congratulations, you can add!
