“Norm-reference testing, which a lot of us in the audience grew up on, create[s] winners and losers. You got the top decile, you got your bottom decile, you got your average and above-average. They are designed to designate winners and losers.”3 This is one of the most fundamental misconceptions in the current debate about testing. Tests may “designate” winners and losers, but they don’t create them. There simply are winners and losers. Anywhere you look in the world, even in much more equitable societies, there is enormous variation in how well students perform.
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