Stateline - the Sting of High-Stakes Testing and Accountability
2000; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 81; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-6487
Autores Tópico(s)Educational Assessment and Pedagogy
ResumoIN THE short-term, simplistic world where many of our education policy decisions are made, high-stakes testing has again become the instrument of reform. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, minimum-competency testing (MCT) for high school graduation, grade promotion, and remediation was mandated by 35 states in just a few short years. Back in those days, the legislation made students the focal point of the rewards and sanctions. The test was held out as a fix for the abuses of social promotion that resulted in a meaningless high school diploma. For a few students, such mandates probably helped. These were the ones possessed of some ability in reading and math but carrying those skills around on a set of lazy bones. Strong and carefully thought-out remediation programs probably saved other students. But in the case of the masses of low-performing students, it was soon discovered that MCT couldn't teach anyone to read. On the other hand, the MCT mandate probably made the difference in some close elections, where a dose of strong medicine always looks like the right cure. Even in states like Colorado ' where legislators passed a law mandating that districts using MCT had to provide remediation during the school day, give students two opportunities a year to take the test, and put the pass/fail score on each student's report card ' the impact of the program was not registering with students. Phi Delta Kappa commissioned two newspaper reporters, Jimmy Covington and Bob Frahm, to visit states and schools and write a book about the impact of MCT. Frahm's visit to the Denver schools found students who had failed the test several times but didn't even know they had to pass it before high school graduation. This time around, state legislators are going to use school report card grades that are based on student test scores to identify school buildings and districts that are failing and then close them down or give a voucher to parents. As history repeats itself, one has to wonder why the benefits and risks of high-stakes testing aren't better understood by legislators before they take action. Of course, anyone raising questions is usually labeled as a loyal defender of the status quo. Nevertheless, a few voices, some of them well known, are giving it a try. And, as usual, enough good and bad news is present so that both sides can claim victory. The Texas Record The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) has produced some achievement gains since 1994. As a result, it will probably be a central focus of the education plank of the Republican Party when the party's presumptive choice, George W. Bush, is nominated for President. The percentage of students in grades 3 through 8 and in grade 10 who have scored at the 70% level or higher has risen from 53% to 78% between 1994 and 1999. Meanwhile, scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for Texas students have also been on the rise. Between 1990 and 1997, Texas outpaced nearly every other state in gains on NAEP tests. In 1999, black students in Texas ranked first and Hispanic students in Texas ranked second on the NAEP writing assessment, when compared to their counterparts in other states. Meanwhile, the Texas Education Agency has received support from a San Antonio federal court decision that ruled that any adverse impact from the test did not outweigh its positive impact. Judge Ed Prado said in his ruling that 'the receipt of an education that does not meet some minimal standards is an adverse impact just as surely as failure to receive a diploma.' The plaintiffs (the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund) had presented strong evidence that the test was encouraging minorities to drop out. Another charge leveled against TAAS has come from the Tax Research Association (TRA) of Houston and Harris counties. Since 1995, these counties have charged that the large test-score gains are the result of excluding large numbers of students from taking the test. …
Referência(s)