How Educated Are We - Assessing The Tests

The data in the graph were taken from a 2000 national Public Agenda survey¹⁷. As the graph shows, most parents surveyed support school districts that implement higher academic standards with consequences for students and teachers. Interestingly, 19% of parents say that academic standards are high enough. Seventy-six percent of parents are in favor of standardized testing, believing that test scores help the teacher spot struggling students. Tests, they say, also help students stay focused. Seventy-five percent of parents say that tests given for graduation motivate children to study more and pay attention in class. According to this survey, most parents (55%) also believe that there is nothing wrong with teaching to the test because they believe that the test measures important skills and knowledge. But, despite the agreement by most parents agreeing that standardized tests are a good idea, a majority of parents also believe that schools rely too much on standardized test scores.

Why this discrepancy? Perhaps it has something to do with the use of the tests. Parents see the tests as a gauge for individual student performance. Failing students should be provided opportunities such as summer school, tutoring, and if necessary, repeating a grade in order to help the child catch up academically. Teachers who consistently have a majority of their students fail the test should be retrained — say the survey respondents.

The Federal and State governments have a different perspective. In most cases, test scores are used to gauge the individual schools and districts. The goal of standardized testing is to ensure that students are becoming proficient in the subjects tested, but the incentives provided for districts and students to pass the test put too much pressure on teachers and students — say the critics.

In many cases state monies and school district reputations are riding on the results of the tests. For example, in Michigan, where 500,000 students take the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test (MEAP), schools can earn $50,000 grants if their students score well or demonstrate improvement. Eighth graders can win $500 college scholarships if they pass the test. Eleventh graders can win $2,500 scholarships. Many newspapers across the state also publish school district test results. The comparisons of districts may not take into consideration academic progress over the years or the demographic make-up of the district, possibly making the districts with lower passing rates look worse than they really are.

Nationally, failing districts also may lose money. According to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, if a school fails to make progress after two years and continues to fail even after special resources are provided, students in that school can transfer to another public school with transportation provided. With the average per-pupil expenditure at $8,787 in 2000, this could add up to a substantial amount of funding loss¹⁸, especially in disadvantaged districts where the percentage of students failing the tests tends to be higher.

How are teachers handling the pressure? In some classrooms, teachers are teaching to the test. In Longfellow School in the Mount Vernon, New York, school district, class lessons were changed to focus on the skills required for the English language arts test (E.L.A.). Before this curriculum change, only 13% of students passed this test. After the change, and after students took many sample tests, 82% of students passed the E.L.A. test. At Davis Middle School, also in the Mount Vernon school district, an 8^th-grade language arts textbook is designed specifically for standardized test-taking with chapters such as "Test," "Pre-test," and "Exam Overview."

If the test is supposed to assess the skill level of students, what is so harmful about teaching to the test so students can score higher (and thus demonstrate skills they are supposed to have)? Sometimes, the test standards may be beneath the level of the student's abilities. In the Scarsdale, New York, school district, teachers, preparing students to take the year 2000 state assessment test in science, taught their students how to use a triple-beam balance (an outdated measurement tool) while their state-of-the-art digital science equipment sat unused. Standardized testing, according to its proponents, is supposed to be a tool for helping to maintain high standards in schools, but "parents in Scarsdale have trouble understanding how they can benefit from standards lower than the ones they apply to themselves" (Traub).

The pressure to pass the test can also lead to abuses. In 2000, schools in California, Florida, Maryland, New York, and Ohio, were accused of teacher-assisted cheating. In 2001, 67 districts in Michigan (more than 8%) were accused of cheating on the state tests.

How are the students handling the pressure? Surprisingly well. According to students surveyed for Public Agenda's report Reality Check 2001, 67% of students say that they "get nervous when [they] take [standardized] tests, but [they] can handle it." Another 28% say that they don't get nervous at all. They also don't feel overwhelmed by too many tests. Sixty-seven percent think they are taking the right number of tests.

Maybe this calm attitude has something to do with the attitude some teachers and schools are taking. At Sampson Middle School in Detroit, Michigan, for example, every year before the MEAP test, students hold a pep rally, T-shirt design contest, and parade. Encouraging MEAP messages are also posted around the school. Does this approach pay off? In the Detroit school district, 8% more students on average passed the MEAP in 2001 than in 2000. There is no way of measuring how much of this increase was due to better teaching strategies and how much was due to getting the students motivated (rather than afraid) to take the test. However, the strategy seems to be popular, and other districts in the state also have been trying to take the pressure off of students in various ways.

Standardized test scores are also used in college admissions. The next panel discusses the Scholastic Assessment Test (more commonly known as the SAT).

Sources: Chart data: "Survey Finds Little Sign of Backlash against Academic Standards or Standardized Tests." Online. Available: http://www.publicagenda.org. April 24, 2002. James Traub. "The Test Mess." The New York Times Magazine, 7 April 2002. "The Facts About…Getting Results." Online. Available: http://www.NoChildLeftBehind.gov. 24 April 2002. Hall, Sheri. "Pupils, schools feel pressure to pass MEAP." Detroit News, 21 January 2002. Mercer, Tenisha. "Detroit: Positive messages pump up students for tests." Detroit News, 21 January 2002. "Is That Your Final Answer?" Time, 19 June 2000. "Public Agenda: Reality Check 2001. " Education Week, 21 February 2001. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Digest of Education Statistics, 2001. Cascade Policy Institute. School Choice Basics. Online. Available: http://www.cascadepolicy.org/pdf/edref/SCB.pdf. May 1, 2002.