Alternatives to High-Stakes Testing
Q8: What Do They Say Against High-Stakes Tests?
"It is improper - and potentially illegal - to use a test score as a single factor to determine retention,
graduation or college admission."
"Decisions that affect individual students' life chances or educational opportunities should not be made
on the basis of test scores alone. Other relevant information should be taken into account to enhance the overall
validity of such decisions."
"We're embracing standardized tests just when the new economy is eliminating standardized jobs."
"As someone who has spent his entire career doing research, writing, and thinking about educational
testing and assessment issues, I would like to conclude [this study review] by summarizing a compelling case showing that
the major uses of tests for student and school accountability during the past 50 years have improved education
and student learning in dramatic ways. Unfortunately, that is not my conclusion. Instead, I am led to conclude
that the unintended negative effects of high-stakes accountability uses [of tests] often outweigh the intended
"We opposed high-stakes, standardized tests used to make important decisions about students or schools for the following reasons: making bad decisions, narrowing the curriculum, focusing exclusively on certain segments of students, losing instructional time and moving decision-making to central authorities and away from local personnel."
"If teachers are judged by their students' standardized test scores, they will no longer see the opportunity to engage with their students as guides, rather only as taskmasters. Unfortunately, both parents and teachers are likely to treat children who fail tests differently, and potentiate the self-fulfilling prophecies begun by the tests."
"As states have rushed to adopt high stakes testing, there have been no significant gains in academic achievement... The dropout rate has increased for both blacks and whites, contrary to most reports... The basic theory justifying such tests - that students rationally react to increasingly demanding requirements by learning more in earlier grades - has little support. If the basic premise upon which high stakes testing is founded is false, and its costs are so severe, then why is it being so widely championed as a panacea?"