The Tests We Need
Statewide content standards are beginning to
spawn high-stakes tests that have evoked furious opposition—not
without cause. The greatest outcry (to reach my ears) has been
occurring in Virginia and Massachusetts, where the new tests are based
on fairly specific content standards. In Kentucky and Maryland, where
the high-stakes tests are based on vague general skills more than on
specific curriculum content, the protests seem mild by contrast. Yet
despite the louder outcry against curriculum-based tests, I believe
they hold far more promise than skills-based tests to promote
significant gains in achievement and equity.
It has to be conceded that, under present circumstances, the backlash against curriculum-based tests has been warranted. The policymakers who have instituted these high-stakes tests have made two strategic mistakes. First, they introduced content standards and tests before providing teachers and students with detailed outlines and teaching materials that define what the content standards really are. They have put in place no adequate system for training teachers in the subject matters identified by the content standards. They have failed to do the hard work of deciding which aspects of the content are the most essential to be included in textbooks, teacher seminars, and tests—a lack of specificity and selectivity which has made at least some of the tests less reasonable and fair than they should be. 1
Between the furious opponents of the curriculum-based tests and their determined advocates there seems to be no middle ground. Yet each party seems right in some respects—except for the anti-test extremists who want no objective statewide tests at all. The more reasonable critics of curriculum-based tests rightly object to inadequate guidelines and materials, and occasional flaws in the tests themselves, and they correctly observe that five decades of content-indifferent schooling and content-poor teacher preparation...
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