Joanne Jacobs

Kimberly Swygert is picking on a fifth grader in Texas who’s boycotting the state tests because they aren’t “fun.” His father is an education professor.

Kimberly quotes writer Bernard Chapin, who’s writing a book on his years as a psychologist at a progressive school that tried to be “fun” but failed to teach troubled students.

I had a chance to look at one of the Illinois books that involve “teaching to the test” the other day. It was quite informative. It contained exercises in phonological awareness that are intrinsic to any child’s learning how to read. I was rather impressed. The real thing that progressives hate about standardization is that it takes warm and fuzzy out of the process. All that is left is what you know and what you don’t know. Standardization merely compares the performance of an individual to that of a larger population. That’s it. Yet, comparisons of any kind are despised. It takes all the excuses and variables out.

Number 2 has lots more testing commentary.

I’ve got a killer book deadline and a computer that’s acting up — browser is erratic, e-mail is weird — so don’t expect much more from me today.