Todd Farley

The scores for the writing portion of this year's FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) plummeted so precipitously that the abilities of the Sunshine State's student writers aren't being called into question, the very validity of those scoring statistics are. While I don't want to say "I told you...

There are those who think American public education is in shambles and needs to be completely remade, arguing that the standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind will be a vital tool in turning around U.S. schools: They say student promotion and graduation, teacher pay and employment, and school...

In the last year I've wed a beautiful woman, sired a genius child, and at last become a writer (with my first book released and my articles published in periodicals from The New York Times to Hustler). It has been, by any measure, an extraordinary year, which is why I...

I had the goat.

That's what I remember about my travels to Detroit last year, while working as a test developer for an educational publishing company. I made two separate trips to Motown, spending seven total days in the Detroit Public Schools to get teacher approval on...

If there's one thing the uber-confident if minimally-experienced education reformers can agree on, it's that this country's students need "high standards." The thought is that the high expectations of "high standards" in our schools will allow the United States to overcome any educational deficiencies we face (even the huge hurdle...

I am in favor of the Obama administration's continued emphasis on standardized testing, but that's not only because I've long been getting rich in standardized testing. Of course not. My fervent support of the President's proposal to test pretty much every kid at the drop of pretty much every hat...

During the nearly 15 years I toiled in the standardized testing industry, most of my time was spent scoring student responses to the open-ended questions on state assessments, or training others to do the same. Because of that experience, I'm amazed today to hear the suggestion that the jobs and...

Like the maddeningly successful author Diane Ravitch, I, too, have changed my mind about No Child Left Behind. Unlike the estimable Ravitch, however -- whose recent bestseller argues in exhausting detail against the very accountability measures that Ravitch long championed -- in the great testing debate I've gone from "con"...