CER Commentary

TESTING HELPS TEACHING
By Jeanne Allen
President, The Center for Education Reform
July 23, 2001

   Congress isn't expected to come out with a final compromise over President Bush's education plan until September, and much of the disagreement centers around his proposal for annual tests, using the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP tests, as an "audit" of state standardized tests.

  Opponents to using any national tests for any reason are an odd coalition of liberals and conservatives: Liberals seem opposed to anything with the word "test"; conservatives seem to oppose anything with the word "national." But on the basis of recent reports from around the country, it's clear that both need to put aside their opposition for the sake of our children.

  There is a consensus that the NAEP exams are an accurate reflection of student achievement. And without a "national audit" of state tests by an accepted national tool, parents will be left to wonder whether their state's examination is a good one or not. Consider:

• Mandatory annual testing was first proposed by Senator Robert Kennedy (D-NY) in 1965. It was then that he urged that the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act include a provision that districts report testing results to the federal government. Unfortunately, because it was left to districts to decide, it didn't work and, according to historian Diane Ravitch, the tests were spotty and not consistently applied.
• Having a national benchmark can reveal which standards work well and which do not: The most recent NAEP scores reveals that in Virginia, where there is a rigorous set of Standards of Learning, the gap between high and low achievers has decreased over the last decade. Meanwhile, in Maryland, where the curriculum and the tests trend more toward the "touchy-feely" constructivist approach, the gap between high and low performers has widened.
• This phenomenon isn't new: Because of NAEP, we know that many state tests really do not tell us anything about how our children are performing. Even as far back as 1997, there were massive differences between NAEP scores and the state tests. That year, parents in South Carolina were told that 82 percent of the students were passing, but when they looking at the NAEP exam they discovered that only 20 percent were meeting a rigorous standard. The same "credibility gap" existed for other states: In Louisiana, there was a 70 percent difference in seventh grade math exams; in Oklahoma, there was a 50-point gap between pass rates; and in Wisconsin, 88 percent met the state's reading standard, but only 35 percent hit NAEP's reading standard.

   State tests - and a national audit of those tests - are vital to educating students in high-poverty, inner city areas. Research shows that "A" students in high poverty schools test at about the same level as "C" or "D" students in wealthy communities. For children in low-performing schools, an intense focus on well-defined, measurable educational outcomes is long overdue. Without a standardized test, there will always be a concern of college admissions officers and employment counselors: that if a student went to school in Harlem, the grades are going to be inflated.

   Perhaps Education Secretary Rod Paige said it best in response to the charge that students will be "tested to death": "That's a charge made by people who feel that testing is somehow external to teaching. But it isn't. It's the other side of the same coin. If you don't assess where you are, what the students have learned or not learned, you're teaching in the dark. That's analogous to driving at night without headlights. Do you every hear anyone saying we're teaching them to death?"

###

The Center for Education Reform [CER] is a national, independent, non-profit advocacy organization providing support and guidance to individuals, community and civic groups, policymakers and others who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools. For additional information on education reform please call CER at (202) 822-9000.

CER Home Page Charter Schools E-Mail CER