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Are we wating time, energy and money on the CRCT? (AJC photo)

After a very long week and some great debate and comments on the APS cheating scandal, I have one big question: Does the test at the heart of this debacle  the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests tell us anything useful?

Does the CRCT help students? Does it help teachers. Does it help anyone?

If not, why do we give it beyond fulfilling the mandate of No Child Left Behind?  Why do we drill students for months to attain a meets proficiency level if it means little?  If we had to test, couldnt we find a better test?

I think standardized testing is fine as long as the results have useful applications. But to give this test every year and spend so much time prepping students for it seems a waste to me if teachers get nothing from the results that can help drive instruction.

Here is what one administrator told me when I asked her about the value of the CRCT:

I think its instructional value is almost nil.  Its an outcome measure, so you only see it at the end of a year, and the data is not detailed enough to give you any real information about kids achievement.

CRCT and tests like it are strictly useful for accountability purposes (determining AYP) so schools who are abnormally focused on them for guidance in instruction are really missing the mark.  Good growth measures and quality internal assessments (mostly formative) are the most useful for improving learning.

Thats why its so ridiculous to knowledgeable educators that policy makers and politicians are so enamored of these tests.  In Finland, which is arguably the best education system in the world based on international comparisons, there arent even standardized tests.

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