"Perform the following thought experiment," Alfie Kohn directed his General Session audience at ASCD's 2000 Conference on Teaching and Learning. "Imagine that your state's test this spring is passed by almost every student who takes it. What is the likely response going to be from your governors, state legislators, and newspapers? 'Damn, these teachers are good?' "
When skeptical laughter from the audience greeted this suggestion, Kohn supplied a more plausible answer: "The test is too easy; the standards are too low; we need to raise the bar."
Given this likely response to universal success, "high standards" are, by definition, standards that not all children will be able to meet, said Kohn, a writer and activist whose most recent book is The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards."
"This whole standards and accountability movement, stripped bare of its pleasant rhetoric about 'all kids can learn,' is really a gigantic sorting device," Kohn charged. "We can never in good conscience support even the more innocuous aspects of this movement, because it all leads to that ultimate point. It's not just about 'harder is better'; it's about setting the bar where we can never allow all [children] to succeed."
Despite this indictment, Kohn stated that he is not necessarily against standards—provided that they allow teachers and students to move toward better learning. He supports standards that are devised largely by teachers, that are offered as guidelines rather than mandates, and that foster a richer pedagogy.
"I'm not on a rampage against standards per se," Kohn said. What concerns him, he explained, are the effects of the "tougher standards" movement. In the pursuit of higher test scores, too many educators are ratcheting up the difficulty level for students without improving their own pedagogy.
The tougher-standards movement "is not merely ineffective but one of the greatest threats and most profoundly antidemocratic movements ever to hit American education," Kohn said. "We are going through a dark time these days."
If a school's test scores go up significantly, that may be reason to worry rather than celebrate, Kohn said. Higher test scores do not necessarily reflect better learning—and, in fact, the two may "pull in opposite directions." Kohn decried the sacrifices that many schools are making on the altar of higher test scores.
"You know what's being given up?" he asked. "Recess for little kids who desperately need to run around. Electives for high school students who'd like to be able to choose some things they're interested in. The chance for elementary school kids to read good books, [because] they have to take reading-readiness exams on punctuation. Class meetings where kids can form a sense of community and learn social skills. Discussion of current events, because that's not going to be on the test. In some areas, if science isn't on the test, goodbye science!"
A school that narrows its focus to improving test scores becomes "a lifeless place that isn't intellectually vibrant," Kohn said. "It doesn't even succeed on its own terms of [fostering] real academic achievement. It's not about academic achievement; it's about higher test scores."
"So before we think we can make our peace with these tests, let's be clear about the real effects," Kohn said. He dismissed as naïve the belief that educators can just teach well and the tests will take care of themselves. "It's not that easy to have it both ways," he warned. "Good instruction can't be standardized." Educators can either have great classrooms or capitulate to the state legislature, he said. "You may have to choose."
Kohn supports grassroots efforts to counter the tougher-standards movement, and he directed his listeners to his Web site (http://www.alfiekohn.org), where a directory of state coordinators can be found. He urged educators and concerned citizens to "come together to fight the standards and testing juggernaut."