Stay Narrowly Focused

I prefer certain standardized tests to others. Those that really help shed light on a transcript are especially useful, in my opinion. The SAT does not fall into this category.

However, the SAT Subject Tests and the AP exams do. 

I can't tell you how many times I've met a kid who got an "A" in his AP course, but got a mediocre score on his Subject Test or even a failing grade on his AP exam. The conversation follows about colleges seeing the score and catching on to the fact that AP Bio was, in fact, a joke and even though the highest grade in the class was an actual "D," the teacher curved grades so that everyone got either an "A" or "B." And now what?

The hope would be that schools would make sure teachers actually taught, and taught well. And how sad that what the colleges pay attention to is what calls high schools to task (as opposed to what's best for the students' education). 

But let me be clear. There is also a very dangerous trap here, and that is that we'll fall more miserably into "teaching to the test." We've already descended into this dark, dark place and, frankly, I haven't thought enough about a workable solution to this problem. I can try to get back to you on that.

But there's one thing I do know. A colleague of mine has a signature on his email and it goes something like this (I'm paraphrasing here): "If it's educationally sound, it's administratively feasible." I think that says it best, and I'll leave it at that.