The Stakes Are Too High in Standardized Tests

Standardized testing has been a part of public education for a long time, but it is only fairly recently that these tests have become a significant source of problems for both students and teachers. In the past, standardized tests were just one of many ways that teachers could assess the performance of their students. Beginning with the implementation of President Bush's No Child Left Behind and continuing with President Obama's Race to the Top, standardized tests have become a disproportionate factor in determining the futures of students and teachers alike. As Dr. Caitlin Dooley discussed in a 2010 Voice of Literacy podcast, students can be retained based on their score on a single test and teachers are being hired and fired by the test scores of their students. Beyond this, the trends have shown that as schools increasingly emphasize testing, the general level of instruction goes down. Students are being taught how to take tests at the expense of any real learning.

As Dr. Dooley suggests, these high-stakes testing policies will not change until teachers and parents make it clear to legislators that the laws need to change. Perhaps we are now witnessing a tipping point in this highly debated issue. Beginning with the recent testing boycott involving teachers and students in Seattle, the sentiments of which have spread to a number of other states, it may now be a time that we begin to reassess the current focus on standardized tests.