Dear Commons Community,

President Barack Obama in an address yesterday, declared that students in our public schools take too many standardized tests.  He had kernel after kernel as to why an over-reliance on standardized testing is not in the best interests of our children and their educations including:

.teaching to the tests is prevalent in too many schools.

.passing tests do not necessarily prepare students for the world.

.tests are used to punish students not help them.

.tests are used to punish schools and declare them failures.

His message is long overdue and I sincerely hope he can make the necessary revisions to the next version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to develop a sane assessment system for public education.

Tony