Hoo boy, here we go...

As if the mania for tests and teaching to tests hasn't poisoned primary and secondary education enough, now people are talking about introducing standardized testing to universities. Yes, there are such things as the Graduate Record Exam and the tests given in California to those looking to become K-12 teachers, but aside from that those who enter Higher Education in the United States enter a new kind of learning experience freed from high-stakes standardized tests.

The recent tests given to newly minted college graduates which suggest that many leave college as illiterate as they were after graduating high school has shocked many in academia. And this shock and sturm und drang leaves the companies which administer the big standardized tests like the SAT and the GRE and the companies that prepare students for those big standardized tests licking their chops awaiting a big payday if and when colleges adopt these tests.

I predict disaster if this trend is followed to its logical ends. College students will cease to have control over their academic destinies, and will be herded into one-size-fits-all curricula. Hopefully I will not be subjected to this situation. If such is in store for me in American universities, perhaps it's yet another reason to look abroad for my graduate studies.