Policy messages: the texts versus the talk

In my reading for a multicultural education class, I came across an article by Michele Kahn (2008).  In response to a quote from President G.W. Bush about NCLB reforms having the mission to "build the mind and character of every child, from every background, in every part of America," she asked a question that I immediately wanted to put on a billboard:

"How do schools build the mind and character of, for example, gay and lesbian children, ethnic minority children and children with disabilities, when the people who decide what their minds and character should be judge the end result with standardized testing?" (Kahn, 2008, p. 531).

How indeed!  Despite the message being delivered by Bush (and many presidents since), we are still limiting our way of assessing student learning to a single measure; the great and mighty standardized test. How can we assess so many individuals with their own challenges, skills, and backgrounds with a single measure?  How can we label those who don't have the needed background knowledge (a la Florida's FCAT Writes camel prompt debacle) as unsuccessful when we've damned them before even putting the assessment in front of them?  Why don't we give all these kids raised in the Florida sunshine a prompt about a snowball fight or skiing in Colorado while we're at it? 

In a world where the tools we can use to express ourselves are changing and expanding, why are we still using a single measure to gauge the success of all?  And since when does putting this same measure on a computer (computer based testing, anyone?) count as authentically integrating technology?

Article Citation:
Kahn, Michele(2008). Multicultural education in the United States: Reflections. Intercultural Education,19:6,527 — 536.