Periphery
Monday, July 18, 2005
  A view on standardized testing from 1921
Linda Mabry in Phi Delta Kappan:
In 1921 Edward Thorndike, who has been called the father of educational measurement, responded to criticism of newly developed standardized tests:
It will be said that learning should be for learning's sake, that too much attention is given already in this country to marks, prizes, degrees and the like, that students work too much for marks rather than for real achievement. . . . Students will work for marks and degrees if we have them. We can have none, or we can have such as are worth working for.