A National Testing System: Manna From Above? An Historical/Technological Perspective

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Abstract
In this article, I examined the proposed role of "authentic" assessment as a policy tool of educational reform from two broad, closely related perspectives-technological and histo1,ical. I argue that one needs to first view testing as a technology. Next, when evaluating proposed policies to create a national examination system, one should examine their feasibility by considering the history of technological developments in testing and the reasons for those developments. Too often we have overlooked the lessons of history in formulating high-stakes testing, policies. In evaluating such testing policies, we need to look back while looking forward. When examined from the technological and historical angle, the practicality of current proposals for the large-scale use of performance measures for certifying an individual's successful completion of a give^ level of education, or for making decisions about an individual's entrance to college or the workplace, is certainly questionable.

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