Statewide Testing: Problem or Solution for Failing Schools?

Nine-year-old Lamont is taking the state's 4th grade reading test, and it's clear that he's having trouble. With his head bobbing and nose pointing to each word in the passage, he scans back and forth, whispering aloud each of the words. When finished, he moves on to the questions. Slumping down in his chair after a brief time, he throws his pencil down on the test booklet and folds his arms, a defiant look on his face. Only two answers have been bubbled in, but he's had enough.Lamont's discomfort is matched by his teacher's. Watching the stress he and several of the other children are experiencing, she is upset about having to put them in a situation she knows is frustrating for them. However, she is also angry that she will be held responsible for their failure to perform satisfactorily.Currently, 38 states reward or sanction schools on the basis of children's performance on state-developed assessments, with sanctions including written warnings, threatened intervention, removal of administrators, funding penalties, and even complete takeovers. By April, 2001, more than 800 of Michigan's 3,128 public schools were deemed at risk of losing accreditation and state take-over if fewer than 25 percent of its students meet state standards on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) tests. Trophies are awarded to top performing schools, and high school students doing well are awarded $2,500 scholarships to college (Johnson, 2001). A proposal by the Bush Administration to test all U.S. children in grades 3-8 has been met by mixed reactions from parents and educators. Those schools that make too little progress will be given additional aid to improve; however, if children's performance is still considered inadequate after two years, it would be mandated that all children attending a "low-functioning" school be offered the option of attending another school and taking their state-funded support with them (Toppo, 2001). Less talked about is the fact that most of these same children will also take with them their lack of experience and skill development, lack of family support, and higher rates of special needs. Unless the "new" school is better able to cope with these children in terms of accumulated learning deficits and unmet personal needs, the "problem" will simply be shifted from one context to another, although it may be better hidden and less of a social and political irritation. Moreover, for those families who are unable to provide transportation or do whatever it takes to find a more hopeful learning environment, their children will be left in schools in which future test scores are sure to be even more negatively skewed.In order to prepare children for better testing outcomes, 49 states are developing or already have developed educational standards (Morrow, 2001). While there have been boycotts and protests across the country and internationally against the abuses of standardized tests, and while several highly reputable professional organizations (National Research Council; American Educational Research Association; American Federation of Teachers) have come out against using a single measure to make educational decisions about children, 12 states have begun to use tests to determine promotion (Heubert and Hauser, 1999). This swell in testing has been costly to already financially burdened school districts, and it has been estimated that more than $423 million per year is now spent on testing in the U.S. Dollars to buy copyrighted achievement tests, coaching materials and additional staff to prepare children for upcoming state testing, and efforts to analyze local test data undoubtedly draw a large share of resources from other areas of school budgets.All of the publicity surrounding test scores has actually begun to reshape school districts and school communities. More affluent families who can afford to do so skirt districts that are average or below average. When considering a move to a new home, these families first check on the neighborhood school's state test scores to determine whether purchasing a home there would be in their children's best interests; as a result, the reputation and makeup of particular communities and the schools within them are increasingly reflective of state testing outcomes and household income. …