Bad Testing Drives Out Good Learning

By Anthony Cody

In economics there exists something known as Gresham's Law. This axiom states, "Bad money drives good money out of circulation." In today's economic parlance, Gresham's Law is often described (as Wikipedia notes) this way: "Money overvalued by the State will drive money undervalued by the State out of circulation."

If we substitute "education" for "money," we can apply this adaptation of Gresham's Law to the situation American public schools now find themselves in. Our government, through No Child Left Behind, has made standardized test scores the "coin of the realm"—the legal tender by which teachers and schools are judged and evaluated. In a recent exchange on the blog "Teaching in the 408," veteran teacher Nancy Flanagan offered this perspective: "NCLB has put the bright lights on some pretty awful schools...but stops short of pushing 21st Century learning skills (synthesis, analysis, creativity, collaboration) in favor of the multiple-guess and fact regurgitation. NCLB has settled for rote presentation and narrowed curriculum, a disservice to kids who deserve more and better of everything—resources, teaching, attention, depth, etc."

Blog author TMAO replied: "There's nothing here that says ONLY teach basic skills. The law says AT LEAST teach those skills. If we can't handle the AT LEAST, of what...