As On liners can see from the blurb below, I wrote this where I taught a long time ago to the district superintendent for the express purpose of warding off “get tough,” autocratic process of assessing teachers because administrators aren’t really trained thoroughly on that score — I have the feeling even less so today in many schools. You will see how difficult it is to evaluate teachers, let alone an entire school. This current fetish for tests won’t do it for the simple reason they are administered with vengeance.

Tests, not unlike teaching, are unique, for they are designed to meet the level and capacity of the students in the learning process. They are not meant to show how stupid the child is or how bad the school is. For instance, a 3rd grade test cannot be universal in competence levels for the reason that each child is laced with unlimited variables both individually and demographically. A state competency test in Great Neck should not be the same as one for Amityville or Schenectady.

Even in the old days NY Regents secondary level tests were not meant for all students; they were designed to evaluate the potential for higher learning. The so-called “general diploma” made the lesser students proud of their accomplishments because they realistically accepted their capacity, yet many late bloomers continued their education at night or enrolled in a community college.

General tests today are a throwback to IQ tests designed to humiliate the student, rather than to motivate him or her to do better the next time. The tests in question now is to humiliate the entire school and blacklist it as failing, which is counterproductive because it brands the student and school personnel as dummies. What does this do to the students and teachers who like their school and simply wish that the community come to its aid in the way of better resources? — financially and parentally.

My point with respect to the "no child left behind" legislative bill is that it is indeed “fraudulent” — aptly put by some democrat senators — reform without ample resources for a holistic approach to the educational scene. Everyone knows that 90% of the schools in the country do reasonably well — surely, much better with an infusion of incentives for student and instructional personnel, together with modernization— for there is no cry for vouchers and charter schools.

Everyone knows that the worst conditions of inner city, and poorer suburban and rural districts are a result of indifference ever since the war on poverty took a nosedive. Even with resources these districts are never going to be the best because professionals follow the money. But with a revival of the true intent of Title I, and with massive economic and professional assistance to poor districts eventually they will become better.