EDUCATION : Panel Raps Standardized Tests
Simple justice and workplace realities demand that American schools and employers stop relying on flawed standardized tests to decide who gets ahead, a private commission said today.
Low test scores should “never stigmatize an individual as a failure or permanently restrict the individual’s life choices,” the Ford Foundation’s National Commission on Testing and Public Policy said in a report.
The report noted that minority groups and women--vital to the work force of the future--score lower than white males on many aptitude and achievement tests.
The group said tests should promote human talents rather than inhibit them; multiple-choice tests should be replaced with better methods of evaluation, and test results alone should not be used to make major judgments about a person.
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