The Collateral Damage of Testing

Many people testifying before the Senate Committee on Testing seemed to suggest that the only way to assure that special needs students, students of color and students in poverty are assured of a sound and equitable education is to test them constantly and compare their performance to others on a national data grid. They propose this even though such testing is incredibly expensive and will force class sizes to rise, lead to cuts in the arts, libraries and counseling , turn instruction into test prep and lead to the disappearance of recess and play. Is this collateral damage worth the "accountability" or will the cure be worse than the disease