This decades-old quote from Alfie Kohn is as true today as it ever has been, because everything in life is a trade-off. We have limited time and resources. If we increase the importance of testing in our schools, we decrease the importance of something else. We must ask ourselves: what is that “something else” that’s being taken away?
The arts? Creative learning and teaching? Physical activity? Recess? Joy in learning for its own sake? Joy in reading for its own sake? Weeks of instruction per year?
We may want to take time to think about what we lose when we introduce “accountability” and seek “higher test scores” at all costs.