Excellence in Education Versus High-Stakes Standardized Testing

Abstract

The evidence is missing for high-stakes standardized testing of either intelligence or achievement as a reform tool, a tool for producing higher student achievement. The focus on invalid testing allows us to ignore the well-documented importance of the quality of teaching as a key factor in student achievement. There is no doubt that teachers can become powerful agents in raising the academic performance of children to high levels, regardless of common impediments such as poverty, bilingualism, and so forth. With the extreme and almost exclusive focus on high-stakes testing, we lose the opportunity to support valid staff development that would make all of our teachers powerful.