A Critical Fork in the Road

By Tony Wagner and Tom Vander Ark

President Bush's strong support for the goal of raising learning standards for all students and focusing additional resources on improving schools that serve poor and minority children represents a significant step forward for this country. His proposals come at a point in time when standards and standardized tests have helped to create awareness of the achievement gap between students of different backgrounds and to frame the national challenge we face.

But many states face a critical fork in the road: to increase the focus on "passing the test," or to increase the focus on meaningful student learning. States that have become too dependent on high-stakes, high-standards tests have another option: build an accountability system that helps students focus on producing quality work, helps teachers focus on improving the quality of student work, and helps school systems create portfolios of quality schools.

Researchers at a recent national conference at Harvard University's graduate school of education reported that the dropout rate in many states has increased in the last few years, most likely as a direct result of high-stakes testing. According to University of Chicago researcher Anthony Bryk, when Chicago instituted a high-stakes 9th grade test several years ago, the 8th grade...