Why Education Reform Fails

Education reform fails because it is based on high stakes standardized tests for the purpose of educational accountability.  With so much at stake curriculum's become focused on what is tested.  Students become good at taking tests, but fail at critical and creative thinking.  In a world that increasingly values critical and creative thinking we are failing our students by restructuring our curriculum to meet the needs of a test and by spending so much time on testing.  In Pennsylvania, all 8th graders spend 3 weeks in April being tested.  Instead of learning during these 3 weeks students are subjected to sit through tests that determine how good of a test taker they are. I highly recommend anyone concerned with education read two excellent books on education reform: The Global Achievement Gap, by Tony Wagner The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, by Diane Ravitch