I applaud State Education Commissioner David M. Steiner. He would be horrified to know that those opposed to standardized assessment have been disciplined for teaching thinking skills and collaborative learning. Taxpayers’ money can be put to better use reducing class size and providing aides in every classroom.

Today’s students have so much to learn—not facts, but process and synthesis— that focused, small group discussion is more meaningful than whatever else ineffective teachers are using. There is a total disconnect between effective pedagogy and testing based upon facts best left forgotten. Let’s teach children to locate information, develop new ideas and create knowledge through collaboration with their peers and facilitators.

Multiple-guess questions cannot be designed to measure the intellectual capacity of great minds. Authentic teaching cannot be measured by standardized tests. No assessment can measure effectively a human’s comprehension and creative capacity by using snippets of today’s body of knowledge. The variables—human interests/talents/knowledge—are too diverse.

Lydia Bezou-Hojnacki

Buffalo