"Zero-Value Tests"? Common Core Nonsense? Engaging in the assessment debate (discussion post)

Diane Ravitch and Louis CK draw our attention to the purpose of assessment. Ravitch cites two criminal acts: (1) the crime against teachers, who are forced to adopt scripts and surrender their professional autonomies, and (2) the crime against children, who suffer the consequences. The best test is the test that a teacher makes, Ravitch claims. Standardized tests have “zero value,” as they simultaneously feed a capitalist industry and deprive teachers of any useful data/observations to revise their teaching practices.

Do you agree with Ravitch’s assertion that standardized tests have “zero value”? How do these tests alter our conversations about pedagogy and curriculum? (Another way to think about this: how do standardized tests add to our conversations? Detract from them?)

While Ravitch interviews on The Daily Show, Louis CK questions the Common Core, repeatedly, in tweets of 140 characters or less. His followers then retweet, and so the chain continues. Do you view social media (Twitter in this case) as an effective platform for discussion of controversial issues in the education community? Whose voices do we hear? Not hear? How does privilege manifest? What assumptions do we make about literacy as we read commentaries of this form?