Testing is not helping public education.

• Author: Kumashiro, Kevin
• Position: PUBLIC SCHOOL SHAKEDOWN - Brief article

Recently released national test scores reveal that high-stakes testing is not helping public education.

The 2015 "Nation's Report Card" shows declines in student test scores in reading and mathematics for the first time since 1990. And SAT scores have also gone down.

None of this should be surprising. Research was clear even before No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top that more testing would do little to improve education.

Reforms that found solid footing in the civil rights movement, including desegregation and multicultural curriculum, were actually closing the gap between white and black students. But in the past quarter century, there's been an increasing preoccupation with test scores. The outcome is a narrowed and less effective curriculum.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will step down in December. His successor is John B. King, whose track record does not suggest a shift in direction. As chancellor of the New York schools, King faced a historic vote of no-confidence by the teachers union and calls for his resignation by...