Can we evolve past ranking?

It's a shame that for most educators testing has always been around. When I hear: "It's just a part of our reality", this makes me sad because it was not always a reality. We do not need to cave about advocating for informed practice - that DOES NOT INCLUDE TESTING. I want to hear of bold stories of countries, states, provinces or school districts that choose practices that support learning, apprenticeships and authentic engagement. The more a student can talk (that means elaborate on understandings) and apply what they are learning - with experts (i.e. teachers, community members, each other...) the more they can deeply learn. A testing culture fits a teacher-directed Borg (see Star Trek) where some students are called on for one word answers to questions they do not design. How boring? No wonder kids are acting out. Stop the testing madness and LEAD - rather than follow...We should not have to IMAGINE what that could be like!

Scholars, in particular, need to step up and challenge the madness. Why should we make room for ranking? Have we not discovered that testing and school improvement may not be able to co-exist? Learning and testing is like water and oil. They do not mix. Testing poisons a school culture. I do hope the Seine can be revived so swimmers can swim in cleaner waters- as I hope schools can rid themselves of the toxicity of ranking, but school leaders and politicians will need to learn more about the depth of options to ranking/testing that sound research has contributed to the body of educational literature.

If the systems keep testing as part of the culture long enough, that's all everyone will ever know. The gridlock of testing vs teaching will be like trying to squeeze a square into a round hole - and the idea of cleaning up the Seine (education) will remain an impossible dream. It's hard for educators to rally behind something they haven't experienced. As long as the testing industry extends its residency of toxicity, the less relevant educational research will become - the strategy of waiting things out - keeps things the same. We all (educators, scholars, policians, parents, investigative reporters...) have to step out and demand that schools have the option (in DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES) to opt out of testing, and then research how students and teachers can apply informed practice. It's a huge undertaking for folks to swim against the current - but those in the 'know' understand they should be doing much more of this.

We need a world with young people capable of designing their future and solving problems that do not have a multiple-choice of options. In a democratic society, why is it not possible for schools to opt out of testing?