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The Politics of National Testing1
Most teachers are comfortable with developing and using tests for classroom purposes, whether to see how much students have learned, to provide a basis for grades, or to gain an understanding of individual students’ strengths and weaknesses. And as state departments of education move forward with their testing programs, teachers are becoming increasingly familiar with tests used as measures of accountability. A third layer of testing arises on the national level and includes the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the voluntary national tests that have been under discussion since 1997. This chapter opens with a discussion of the political rationale behind national testing and provides an overview of the voluntary national testing movement. It then turns to a brief examination of NAEP, “the nation’s report card,” in both its national sample format and its state administration, which may be a backdoor to a true national test. Finally, action steps and resources are provided to enable teachers to take part in the ongoing debate about national testing.
Does the United States need to have some kind of test that every student in every state takes to demonstrate mastery of some agreed-upon body of knowledge and skills? Other countries do, but few have a decentralized, diverse education system similar to ours. A national test would require reaching agreement on several issues including:
C What the test should cover
C Whatformatitshouldtake
C At what point(s) it should be administered
C Who should administer it
C Whetherandhowanytypesofstudents(e.g.,thoseinspecialeducation,thosewith
limited English proficiency) should be exempted or accommodated
C When it should be administered
C How it should be scored
C Whattheconsequencesshouldbefordoingwellorpoorlyonit
C Howitshouldfitinwithexistingstate,schooldistrict,andclassroomstandards
and assessments
C Whoshouldparticipatein(andpayfor)itsdevelopment
It’s important to note here that commercial test publishers have long offered achievement tests (e.g., the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the California Achievement Test, the Terra Nova) that are administered to schools across the country and normed on national samples but are not in themselves national tests because individual schools, districts, or states decide for themselves whether to use them and which to select. The SAT is probably the most common test administered in the country, but it is intended to measure college- bound students’ aptitude for college work, not academic achievement across a wide range of subjects for all students. And it has the ACT as competition.
The question of a true national test is a complicated one, and like many policy matters, it has strong political overtones. Over the past two decades, many politicians have moved
1 WritteRnubdyneCra,roLl.BaonsdtoWn.Schafer(2002)WhatTeachersNeedtoKnowAbout Assessment. Washington, DC: National Education Association.
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