Dale Johnson and I wrote this 1975 piece in the heyday of Skills Management Systems like Wisconsin Design and Fountain Valley, all of which managed kids’ journey through a labyrinth of sub-skill tests and practice dittoes (before photo duplication), one skill after another after another. We critiqued these early attempts for putting accountability before learning, among other matters. The scary thing is that I could easily dust the piece off, do a find and replace substituting standard for skill, and publish it today as a relevant critique of standards-based assessment systems, which are expanding exponentially in this digital age.
Johnston&Pearson.1975.SkillsManagementSystems.goodqualitypdf.20193908