Beyond the Bubble

After reading the article Beyond the Bubble Test: How will we measure Learning in the Future?, I totally agree with their point that standardized tests can be a waste of time and that they do not measure real skills.  As a first grade teacher I do not have to practice and administer these state tests in my classroom, but I do here my coworkers complain about them in the faculty room.  They waste valuable teaching time that could be spent learning new things and students could be using this time to create projects using Web 2.0 tools.  I recently was watching a TV show called Friday Night Lights, and in the show a character was on a job interview for an assistant dean of a college. In her interview she told them that she did not want to focus on the test score because it did not show you who the students were and she wanted to meet with all the students face to face and get to know them that way instead of by their test scores. I agree that a new testing system done with technology would better meet the needs of our students of the 21st century.  These tests will be performance based and will assess real world situations.  I think this is a great change for education, a change that needs to be done.