Smarter Balanced may not test what is needed

“The new scale is measuring every student’s college- and career-readiness,” (State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn) said, noting that the test emphasizes mostly college readiness skills.

Some questions, superintendent:

1.Can you tell us how the “Smarter Balanced” test measures the qualities that most make people ready for college and careers: Aggressive curiosity and fierce eagerness to learn?

2. Are South Puget Sound Community College and Lake Washington Institute of Technology schools whose readiness skills the test measures?

3. Describe the Smarter Balanced hands-on section on carpentry, engine repair and machining, and police officer training.

4. Computer programming is crucial to manufacture. But at an idea’s conception, designers’ eyes and hands best tell their brains what to tell the machine.

Throughout the Industrial Revolution, engineers were expected to draw and letter like fine artists. How does “Smarter Balanced” take account?

5. A first grade child can create a portfolio of written work and pictures. With 3-D printers now routine as office machines, a sixth grader can show an employer a working model. Why are we bothering with tests and “scores” at all?

Suggestion, Mr. Superintendent. Give the Capitol your OK to pass and sign Sen. Roach’s cursive writing mandate, and ask the Senate give her leave of absence to come help your department implement it.

Education herself will thank you. And in gratitude, Pam’s Republican colleagues will make peace with McCleary and save Washington their keep in prison.

This story was originally published August 24, 2016 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Smarter Balanced may not test what is needed."