December 2001 — Editorial
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Assessment and Accountability
Assessment and accountability systems leading to educational improvement are ongoing concerns to parents and educators. Federal, state and local educational authorities are considering how best to use them to enhance educational outcomes and to result in better academic achievement. In 1997, former President Bill Clinton challenged the nation's schools to participate in a rigorous national test of each student's reading skills at grade four and mathematics skills at grade eight. He stated: "What we need are tests that will measure the performance of each and every student, each and every district, so that parents and teachers will know how every child is doing compared to other students in other schools, in other states, in other countries - not just compared to them, but more importantly, compared against what they need to know." However, the use of a national test challenges the American tradition that states and local districts control education; and concern that a national test may lead to central control has been expressed.
States have, or are in the process of developing content standards. For example, to help teachers align classroom evaluation to state standards, Pennsylvania mailed 50,000 resource kits to schools across the state. Developed by more than 100 teachers, the kits contained a review of the standards, assessment tips and instruction strategies, resources for parents, sample lesson plans and professional development ideas. Chart 1 shows some of the findings from the 2001 report, "Measuring What Matters - Using Assessment and Accountability to Improve Student Learning," prepared by the Research and Policy Committee for Economic Development. Chart 2 (Page 8) reveals the growing concern for standardized tests.
Measurements vary from state to state and have encountered criticism such as: teachers try to inflate student scores by teaching to the test; tests rely heavily on multiple-choice questions; variability in student performance from state to state is not accounted for; and course standards are not sufficiently rigorous. At a recent meeting, a number of teachers were discussing testing and agreed on the following:
- If we tie teacher evaluation and compensation as well as funding for the school to test results, teachers will teach to the test.
- Testing, which teachers call "high stakes," is driving much of what is considered important. Therefore, testing is both the beginning and the end of instruction.
- In teaching to the test and aligning the curriculum to the standards, the other important needs of the students may be forgotten.
Data with which to compare performance across states and to see the overall picture of the American educational system across the nation and internationally is of value. We need answers to questions such as why the Czechoslovakian Republic, which spends a third as much per pupil as we do, recently ranked sixth in mathematics and second in science, while we ranked 28th and 17th, respectively.
