Test-Based Accountability and International Comparisons: Lessons Ignored
EducationJul 7, 2011The historical and current focus on test-based accountability to drive education evaluation and reform is often situated within another historical and current approach to judging U.S. public education—international comparisons. Just as we tend to misuse test data, specifically the SAT, to rank and label the quality of schools and state education systems, we do the same with international comparisons.
“A century ago, the United States was among the most eager benchmarkers in the world,” opens Tucker (2011), leading to the focus of his report, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: An American Agenda for Education Reform”: “In this paper, we stand on the shoulders of giants, asking what education policy might look like in the United States if it was based on the experience of our most successful competitors” (p. 1). Tucker notes that the report’s goal also stands on the claims by Secretary Duncan that U.S. education is lagging behind other countries.
Tucker (2011) also establishes early the evidence supporting the U.S.’s