Assessing --

Wow...this is old already, but I really appreciate that Hillocks  addresses that we do so much whining,yet we capitulate to the stance that we all 'teach to the test' -- at least in one way or another.  I think that what I am most bothered by -- and I see in my own school -- is that "writing assessment drives instruction" (64).  That is clear and needs to be so as we are evaluated by those scores, but I worry that it will take voice and tone out of writing.  All writing needs then to be 'The Same' in some fashion.  No longer will individualism in style, content, voice and even rhetorical grammar be allowed and we are condoning it.  Hillocks goes through a number of very significant and important questions to consider, but his audience is already sold on the matter -- instead, we need the legislators (who may not be savvy regarding all that education entails even though they set policy and funding) to listen to more than just the test writing companies.  So how do we get communities to take back control of their schools and dictate more. 

The standardization of the GLOBE is bothering me, but we seem to be losing any sense of regionalism and culturalism -- to me it feels a little like the 1984 situation  -- certainly not to that extreme yet -- maybe? 

So, I guess what I want to see is the resurgence of the local school that is founded on the children and adults of that community.  This school could focus on the needs of its own community members and therefore may direct its curriculum toward whatever its members may need.  I don't know that any "national" standards are truly necessary.  Instead, I wonder if this might give more rise to local concern, pride, initiative and less emphasis on the answers all coming from the top down.  Of course, this would require a change in National Education law and funding changes --