Take a moment to view the first 2 minutes of this video and you will understand why we need reform and freedom from all these multiple choice assessments. Authentic learning is not preparing students for tests. Authentic learning is fostered when a student is asked to find the reasons behind the content. Inquiry based learning is one vehicle to accomplish this.
Loved the initial story at the beginning of this piece. I have been beating my head against the wall for two decades on this very subject. Identifying what year WWII started or who was president at the time of the Louisiana Purchase is just not as important as guiding students in learning how to analyze, evaluate, and create possible solutions for real world issues. Future employers don't care if kids can spew facts found on multiple choice tests (or, as we used to call them in high school, "multiple guess tests")...they don't care if students can make a nice pattern on their Scantron sheets...they care if our future engineers, scientists, IT specialists can think outside the box, work independently without constant direction, work cooperatively and civilly with others, and maintain stamina in working on long-term projects that cannot be solved instantly. If these Core Standards can finally, successfully, move us away from 20th century Cold War-era methods of standardized testing, I say "Hallelujah!"
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