Survey Finds Teachers Have Little Confidence In Standardized Tests

Education Week (3/21, Rebora) reports that according to a new survey published by Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "most teachers do not believe standardized tests have significant value as measures of student performance," noting that "only 28 percent of educators see state-required standardized tests as an essential or very important gauge of student achievement. In addition, only 26 percent of teachers say standardized tests are an accurate reflection of what students know. One potential explanation for those low marks lies in another of the survey's findings-that is, only 45 percent of teachers think their students take standardized tests seriously or perform to the best of their ability on them."