03/11/10

It's been an ongoing debate for decades now; should all state tests for students be combined into a single national test?

Right now, it's very difficult to compare students from one state, with any other state.

Twin Falls School District Superintendent Dr. Wiley Dobbs said “Because there are 51, including Washington D.C., there are 51 separate tests that are being administered, and 51 separate sets of standards.”

Dobbs says the proposed national tests are now in draft form and school districts are getting feedback on the tests from teachers, students, and school patrons.

He says while some people see a national test as infringing on individual states' rights or 'big brother watching us' - being able to compare states would help school districts use methods that are succeeding in other states, to improve their own students' education.

Dobbs says, “It would be nice, I think, and probably useful for us to be able to examine how are our kids doing with the strategies that we're using compared to how they might be doing in another state.”

Whether you love it, hate it, or are indifferent about it, Dobbs says 'No Child Left Behind' introduced standards based education to our American culture and those standards probably won't go away anytime soon.

He says it's likely that the testing standards will be refined from mere student proficiency, to how much a student actually learns in the classroom.

According to Dobbs, “Right now, the tests are about proficiency, and making it to that line in the sand. As opposed to, how much growth are we seeing with the child before they came to a classroom or a teacher, and where they end up at the end of the year.”