CHINA TESTS LESS, US TESTING MORE: Follow The Money?

 For the last few years we have been concerned about "keeping up with the joneses" in our attempts at education reform. Since many experts (not necessarily me) feel China will be the driving force in world affairs by mid century, most of the comparison have followed that logic. As we try to "fix'' educational system in so many varying ways as to appear almost fadish, where we seem to now be going in opposite directions from the "Middle Kingdom" is on testing. China's education system has a long history of high-stakes testing. . "Old China" had a tradition of selecting the best students depending on test results, and 5,000 years of culture isn't exactly going to disappear overnight"

China is moving more and more away from high stakes testing being having such a fundamental role. They are looking now at ALL aspects of their system, making the appropriate changes and deciding the merits of their education at all levels on a more holistic plane. At the same time it seems like the US is putting all of its education "eggs" into the single basket of high stakes testing. We're focused on using test results to evaluate students, schools, and teachers alike. And, to do better on tests, we've spent the time since No Child Left Behind was enacted narrowing our educational focus to concentrate on reading and math. This entails tying government funding, teacher salaries, school grades etc more and more on the results of "one size fits all" tests.

This leads me to wonder, WHY? Well, maybe we should just "follow the money" . The school reform has become BIG BUSINESS in this country, with high stakes testing its all pervasive key component. In good old american fashion we have sought out the quick buck at the expense of the long term benefits which come from a solid educational system. We want to remain ahead of the Chinese or at least stay competitive so why do we continue to move in the direction that China has already committed to abandoning or at least de-emphasizing? The simple and honest answer is --- GREED.

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