"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Thursday, October 01, 2015

Unsubstantiated claims about common core tests

Sent to US News, October 1.

Contrary to Scott Sargrad's claims ("Tests can be golden," September 30), there is no evidence that the common core tests are a "more rigorous and honest look at students' performance." All the recent California results showed is that the new tests are harder.  As education expert Alfie Kohn has repeatedly pointed out, harder does not necessarily mean better.

There is also no evidence for Sargard's claim that passing the common core high school test means a student is better prepared for college. No study has been done showing a correlation between common core test performance and college success, nor, to my knowledge, are any such studies planned.

Stephen Krashen

Original article: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/09/30/california-colleges-are-realizing-common-cores-promise

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