Test Scores Quotes

• Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up.

  Carol S. Dweck

  Wise, Achievement, Growth

  Carol S. Dweck (2006). “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, p.66, Random House

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• Test scores aren't perfect, but having a test score for math or reading or other things that we can objectively measure is a meaningful component that makes a lot of sense.

  Bill Gates

  Meaningful, Reading, Math

  "Bill Gates Seeks Formula for Better Teachers". Interview with Stephanie Banchero, www.wsj.com. March 22, 2011.

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• The world is a bell curve. Classroom test scores, employee performance in a company or how many people really, really like you. No matter the population you're studying, they always fit neatly across the standard deviations of the famous bell curve.

  Simon Sinek

  Curves, People, Population

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• With my academic achievement in high school I was accepted rather readily at Princeton and equally as fast at Yale, but my test scores were not comparable to that of my classmates. And that's been shown by statistics, there are reasons for that - there are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action to try to balance out those effects.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Motivation, School, Yale

  "Videotaped remarks shed light on Sotomayor" by Charlie Savage, www.sfgate.com. June 11, 2009.

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• The SAT is not perfect. We all know smart, knowledgeable people who do badly on standardized tests. But neither is it useless. SAT scores do measure both specific knowledge and valuable thinking skills.

  Virginia Postrel

  Smart, Thinking, Skills

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• Reducing children to a test score is the worst form of identity theft we could commit in schools.

  Stephen Covey

  Children, School, Identity

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• If you improve education by teaching for competence, eliminating schooling, and connecting with students, the test scores will improve.

  William Glasser

  Teaching, Tests, Students

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• Massachusetts children cannot only lead the nation in test scores, they can be competitive with the best in the world. And the gap in achievement among races can virtually disappear.

  Mitt Romney

  Children, Race, Achievement

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• Scientific research and other studies have demonstrated that arts education can enhance American students' math and language skills and improve test scores which in turn increase chances of higher education and good jobs in the future.

  Thad Cochran

  Art, Jobs, Math

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• I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Baby, Yale, Perfect

  "Sotomayor Praises Affirmative Action". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. June 12, 2009.

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• There are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action - to try to balance out those effects.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Motivation, Balance, Trying

  "Videotaped remarks shed light on Sotomayor" by Charlie Savage, www.sfgate.com. June 11, 2009.

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• We don’t really care about test scores. We care about adult outcomes.

  Raj Chetty

  Adults, Care, Outcomes

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• G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. We found that they don’t predict anything.

  Laszlo Bock

  Tests, Criteria, Found

  "In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal". Interview with Adam Bryant, www.nytimes.com. June 19, 2013.

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• I think [testing] has had a profoundly problematic impact on student learning. It must seem to students that their worth as individuals is equivalent to their test score. The stress the high stakes culture has on teachers is also highly negative and must surely impact students in a negative way. It also de-professionalizes teachers because it encourages them to be script readers, followers of rigid schedules, and to disregard the needs of the people they teach in favor of the scripts and schedules.

  Carol Ann Tomlinson

  Teacher, Stress, Thinking

  Source: blogs.edweek.org

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• You have to remember, we may be the only nation, the only one I know of, that uses test scores not to assess kids, but to assess teachers. I think we're unique in doing that.

  John Merrow

  Teacher, Kids, Unique

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• When teachers are forced to teach to the test, students get bored and genuine education ceases, no matter what the test scores may say… The examination as a test of the past is of no value for increased learning ability. Like all external motivators, it can produce a short term effect, but examinations for the purpose of grading the past do not hook a student on learning for life.

  Myron Tribus

  Teacher, Past, Bored

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• Never compare one student's test score to another's. Always measure a child's progress against her past performance. There will always be a better reader, mathematician, or baseball player. Our goal is to help each student become as special as she can be as an individual--not to be more special than the kid sitting next to her.

  Rafe Esquith

  Baseball, Children, Kids

  Rafe Esquith (2007). “Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56”, p.80, Penguin

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• For teachers, getting annual test scores several months after taking the test and in most cases long after the students have departed for the summer sends a message: Here's the data that would have helped you improve your teaching based on the needs of these students if you would have had it in time, but since it's late and there's nothing you can do about it, we'll just release it to the newspapers so they can editorialize again about how bad our schools are.

  Douglas B. Reeves

  Summer, Teacher, Teaching

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• The people who run the international tests told us, "the biggest predictor of student success is choice." Nations that "attach the money to the kids" and thereby allow parents to choose between different public and private schools have higher test scores. This should be no surprise; competition makes us better.

  John Stossel

  Running, School, Kids

  "Smearing education choice". townhall.com. July 26, 2006.

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• Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making.

  Richard Louv

  Art, Nature, Math

  Richard Louv (2013). “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder”, p.162, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• What do teachers and curriculum directors mean by 'value' reading? A look at the practice of most schools suggests that when a school 'values' reading what it really means is that the school intensely focuses on raising state-mandated reading test scores- the kind of reading our students will rarely, if ever, do in adulthood.

  Kelly Gallagher

  Teacher, Reading, Mean

  Kelly Gallagher, Richard L. Allington (2009). “Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and what You Can Do about it”, p.7, Stenhouse Publishers

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• Man, I wouldn't know where to begin on education reform, but one thing we have to do is add teacher accountability WITHOUT stressing standardized test scores.

  Raheem Jarbo

  Teacher, Stress, Men

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• In California we froze property taxes, school size increased, test scores declined, and there was a massive middle-class white flight to private schools. We're turning into Victorian England at a very rapid rate.

  Robert Hass

  School, Class, California

  Interview with Sarah Pollock, www.motherjones.com. March/April, 1997.

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• The origins of these [schooling] federal policies were tied to President Johnson's war on poverty. Supplemental funds were sent to school districts serving poor children to compensate for issues related to poverty. Since the enactment of NCLB, the focus on mitigating poverty has been replaced by a focus on accountability as measured by test scores.

  Pedro Noguera

  Children, War, School

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• The United States ranks 14th in the world in education. Even if we subtract Sarah Palin's test scores, it only bumps us to third. Damn you, Finland!

  Christopher Titus

  Damn You, Tests, United States

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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