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You may be right, but huge problems arise with the open-everything-testing solution with regards to access to resources, especially with standardized testing. S

You may be right, but huge problems arise with the open-everything-testing solution with regards to access to resources, especially with standardized testing. SATs (and standardized tests in general) are meant to be a blind test that objectively evaluates the abilities of any individual student anywhere the same way; if we allow external resources, this will undoubtedly be a huge disadvantage for students in lower income areas who don't have easy access to the Internet or a sufficient number of reference books and materials for all the students. Providing internet access at testing sites would help somewhat, but if you have grown up in an environment where the internet was not as ubiquitous as some of us are used to, you may not have the Google-fu or knowledge of Internet research methodology necessary to compete with those in wealthier areas. This is an issue that will hopefully be diminished over time, especially in developed nations, but it will be a very long time before Internet access is sufficiently widespread in what are now developing nations to prevent a huge barrier to entry for students in these places.

visarga 11y ago
Maybe students who are disadvantaged on their internet access could test on other subjects, such as math or physics. It seems unfair to penalize the other people who have access to information and can use it. As a child I was not allowed to use calculators in math - for the reason that "what if your computer breaks?" - well, it never broke. It was a stupid rule, especially after 4th grade. Computer access will always be available, so why ban it during testing?
- morcheeba 11y ago
  "what if your computer breaks?" is a poor reason. The real reason is to get an estimate of results in your head so you can cross-check the computer for mistakes. How much ice cream to feed my city of 30,000? If the computer says 7.336E9 kg, that's a problem.

visarga 11y ago

Maybe students who are disadvantaged on their internet access could test on other subjects, such as math or physics. It seems unfair to penalize the other people who have access to information and can use it. As a child I was not allowed to use calculators in math - for the reason that "what if your computer breaks?" - well, it never broke. It was a stupid rule, especially after 4th grade. Computer access will always be available, so why ban it during testing?

morcheeba 11y ago
"what if your computer breaks?" is a poor reason. The real reason is to get an estimate of results in your head so you can cross-check the computer for mistakes. How much ice cream to feed my city of 30,000? If the computer says 7.336E9 kg, that's a problem.