Understanding language
(phrases): Standardized tests are like:

A bridge too far

A stitch in time

A fly in the ointment

A skeleton in the closet

A camel's nose under the tent

A screen door in a submarine

(Extra credit: Define the adage!)

While opponents blame legislators for the growing prominence of standardized tests, the public seems to love them. An analysis of public-opinion data published in 1998 (see "The Demand for Standardized" in the bibliography), found large majorities making positive noises about testing.

Author Richard Phelps, with the American Institutes for Research, looked for every public-opinion poll on the subject. These are some of his results:

True or false?
1.) Standardized tests help improve education.

In 1997, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found 70 percent of American adults agreed "using standardized national tests to measure the academic achievement of students would improve the achievement of students in the local public schools a great deal [or] quite a lot."

2.) Should we establish a national school exam system?

Phelps found an average difference of 43 percentage points between positive and negative responses. Once the math-challenged minds at The Why Files solved simultaneous equations (x + y = 100; x + 43 = y), we learned that 61.5 percent of respondents in the polls, on average, favored more national tests, while 28.5 opposed them.

3.) The public favors "voluntary" national tests like those proposed by Presidents Bush and Clinton.

A 1997 poll by CNN-USA Today found 68 percent in favor. Tests are the best way to measure student progress. False. Fifty-eight percent of respondents told a 1990 CBS news poll that teacher evaluations were paramount. Tied in a distant second place were grades and tests, with 18 percent each.

4.) Teachers have qualms about standardized tests.

A 1997 poll by the educational group Phi Delta Kappa International found a 36 percentage point difference between the majority, which said there was excess standardized testing, and the minority that thought there was too little.

The public likes standardized tests. Teachers hate them. Are there alternatives?