A Realistic Approach to Better Testing
Dear Deborah,
Whenever there is any discussion of accountability, there is always an overhang of issues of testing and the use of tests. Testing clearly falls into the knee-jerk reaction zone, but I'm hoping not to inspire such reactions. Instead I want to lay out a simple idea of how to deal with a number of the current problems and objections in order to see if you agree with it.
Let me just give a quick overview of where I think testing under accountability stands. While ultimately we may differ on the weights attached to different observations, that is not central to what I propose. This is just meant to motivate the idea that I want to set out and not to be the subject of any debate.
From the scientific evidence, I conclude that the introduction of testing into accountability has had generally positive effects. In particular, test scores in grades subject to accountability have risen nationally. They have also exposed some embarrassingly large achievement gaps by race, ethnicity, and income levels that have helped to focus attention on the most vulnerable populations. And, as crude as these measures of achievement are, there