When I see a video like this one, it reminds me of the limited value of the standardized tests that now determine the life chances of students.
My first thought when I saw this video was that Americans are wild and crazy.
My second thought was to gasp and admire their courage as these three extreme athletes leap from high peaks.
My third thought was about the irrelevance of standardized tests in their lives.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A most interesting program on Linktv was aired last night in which debates took place on books, kindle, how children learn etc.
One segment especially cogent was one in which evaluators gave a test to students in which they had played a program with information that was patently false.
However, these students had been subjected to tests, tests, tests- about which we are too familiar.
EVERY student believed these falsehoods to be true, Unanimously.
Teaching to the tests does this.
The lack of discrimination it would seem to be as bad as that as way too many of our politicians making these decisions.
Education “reform” is just like base jumping — only without the parachute.
Base jumpers and wing suit flyers have intellectual and mental skills that cannot be seen let alone understood by a test. They lifetime learners and innovators who create the equivalent of huge wrap around services for themselves in order to be able to do what they do. They are a community that collaborate deeply and share information and experience for the benefit of all involved, quite the opposite of the Balkanization of the individual that the current deform movement desires despite vacuous blathering to the contrary.
Does it not seem that standardized tests create more mechanical thinking they are trained to have ? Does it not seem that reasoning, logic, critical thinking and intuitive and creative thinking are left at the side of the road ? And where in this process do we develop the curiosity to learn and the love of learning ? And where in this process do we consider different styles of learning and the developmental readiness for learning ? And where in this process do we consider and use the principles of learning theory ?
In this urge to test everything and evaluate everything based on these tests, are we not guilty of one dimensional thinking and one method works for every student and every age ? One of the thoughts that occurs to me is a question about whether in our obsession to evaluate and test are we perhaps guilty of “leading our children to the river like the pied piper of Hamlin??”
What is “Education Laureate”?