Standardised Tests

Call me old fashion, but I've always figured tests were the best way of assessing what a person knows. Apparently, that's not the case:

National literacy and numeracy tests are invalid measures of student ability because they cannot assess a child's "sense of wonder" and levels of cowardice or arrogance.

In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the academic standards of school education, the Australian Education Union argues against the use of standardised tests to measure student achievement and says "there is no crisis in standards".

"The AEU has long been cautious about the use of basic skills tests and other standardised tests as a means of measuring the wellbeing of Australian schools," it says.

"Much of what is important in schooling is not measured by standardised tests."

Right. Trying running a small business or passing uni with a "sense of wonder". I love the "just because it appears we're doing a bad job, doesn't mean we're actually doing a bad job..." mentality.