The War On Tests

As Education Secretary Arne Duncan pointed out, if we test students to see what they know, we might find out that they're not as smart as they think they are or their parents hoped they were. And in a society where individuals have trouble owning up to their failures, students and their parents will eventually blame educators for not teaching the material well enough.

That's the key. With classroom tests, the penalty for not doing well falls on students. With government-mandated tests, it falls on teachers and schools. Those who have no problem with the former have a big problem with the latter.

It's depressing that defenders of the status quo found it easier to go to war against high-stakes tests than to spend their time and energy improving the education they give our kids.

Now, in a disturbing development, teachers unions -- along with the strange bedfellows of "local control" Republicans who don't care if students outside their districts receive a quality education -- have rolled the White House. Obama recently acknowledged his administration's own mea culpa in pushing high-stakes tests and urged schools to make exams less strenuous.

Do you suppose that right now leaders in China, India and other hyper-competitive countries are saying the same thing to the administrators who run their schools? Not a chance.

Trying to spin the change of course in an interview with The Associated Press, Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House's Domestic Policy Council, offered commentary that was priceless.

"There's just a lot of testing going on, and it's not always terribly useful," she said. "In the worst case, it can sap the joy and fun out of the classroom for students and for teachers."

What a tragedy. Tests sapping the joy out of the classroom? Is our top priority making school fun?

What can we conclude from Munoz's ridiculous comment? Only that, when the White House was trying to fill her job, there must not have been an IQ test.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.