The backlash in Texas against excessive high-stakes standardized testing seems to be rattling business leaders, who have now blamed educators for panicking parents about the exams, The Washington Post reports.
Laboring under the delusion that standardized tests are the key to “holding schools accountable” for student achievement, leaders of the Texas Coalition for a Competitive Workforce have warned that they will oppose future hikes in school spending if the testing regime in Texas is weakened, the Houston Chronicle reported in this story.
Bill Hammond, president of the powerful Texas Association of Business, actually said this about teachers and administrators during a press conference Wednesday: “They’ve gone about scaring mom. They’ve told mom that Johnny is not going to UT [University of Texas] because of the end-of-course exam.”