Hi Everyone,

A  really good article on testing came out today, Oct. 9, in The New 
York Times, p. A31

"A study released last week by   the Thomas B.Fordham Institute and the 
Northwest Evaluation Association found that "mprovements in passing 
rates on state tests can largely be explained by declines in the 
difficulty of those tests.'"  E.g., state tests are largely bogus.

  From my point of view, the NAEP is useful because it can be used all 
over the country.

School must be about more than standardized testing.  It should be 
about learning how to work with people, about learning new things and 
expanding horizons, and finding out where a child's  real interests may 
lie, whether in ballroom dancing, carpentry, electronics, or history..

Andrea