On Leadership: Standardized testing: Making the best of it

Abstract

The Every Student Succeeds Act, passed by Congress in 2015, was meant to rein in the over-testing of public school students. Since then, however, standardized testing hasn’t eased up much, and it isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, notes PDK’s CEO Joshua P. Starr. As long as our schools are required to administer frequent tests, he argues, school system leaders should use the resulting data as best they can, letting it inform their interactions with community members, parents, educators, students, and colleagues in the central office.