Title: The Dangerous Consequences of High-Stakes Standardized Testing | FairTest
Headings: The Dangerous Consequences of High-Stakes Standardized Testing
The Dangerous Consequences of High-Stakes Standardized Testing
1) High-stakes tests are unfair to many students.
2) High-stakes testing leads to increased grade retention and dropping out.
3) High-stakes testing produces teaching to the test.
4) High-stakes testing drives out good teachers.
5) High-stakes testing misinforms the public.
Conclusion: High-stakes testing does not improve education.

Content: People have a right to know how well schools are doing. However, tests fail to provide sufficient information. The new federal requirement that only assessment scores be used to determine whether schools are improving will make the situation worse. Teaching to the test causes score inflation (score gains that don’t represent actual improvements in learning) which misleads the public into thinking schools are improving, when they may not be better – and due to teaching to the test, may even be worse. Most tests are secret, so the public cannot know what students are expected to know. State academic content standards typically are too long, often too obscure, and much of what is in them is not tested. Tests are a narrow slice of what parents and the public need to know about schools. They don’t include non-academic areas and they are weak measures of academics. Test results don’t take into account non-school factors that affect learning, such as poverty, hunger, student mobility, lack of medical care, safety, community resources, parents’ education - all of which must be addressed if "no children are to be left behind." Conclusion: