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Test scores shrink what schools are for
The testing law
The No Child Left Behind Act updated Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act and set out to close the achievement gap through rigorous mandatory testing. Its principle was that every child can learn, every child is expected to learn, and schools must show whether each one is learning.
What tests flatten
A standardized test is a reductive measure of how individual students are achieving. It flattens the idea of what schools should do and reduces them to places that produce students who can score well on an exam. Emphasis on quantitative testing as the measure of school quality is one of the more damaging legacies of the Coleman Report.
What the survey asked
Coleman's own survey had gone well beyond scores, asking students about their family backgrounds, their expectations, and whether they felt in control of their futures.
How did No Child Left Behind enforce testing?
President George W. Bush signed the law in January 2002. It required states to test students in reading and math every year in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. Schools had to meet adequate yearly progress targets, with every student expected to be proficient by 2014. Schools that missed targets for consecutive years faced steps such as offering transfers, funding tutoring, and eventually restructuring.
Why does a test-based measure get distorted?
Social scientist Donald Campbell stated a rule in 1976 that became known as Campbell's law: the more a quantitative indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it becomes to corruption pressures. Under high-stakes testing, researchers have documented schools narrowing instruction toward tested subjects, and a few districts, including Atlanta, were found to have altered answer sheets. A 2013 grand jury indictment of Atlanta educators followed an investigation of cheating there.
What replaced No Child Left Behind?
President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act in December 2015. It kept the requirement for annual testing in reading and math. It returned much of the authority over accountability systems, including how to rate struggling schools, to the states. Several states added measures such as chronic absenteeism and school climate surveys to their ratings.