My local paper carried a wire service story on new problems with NCLB mandated testing. It appears that schools, with state encouragement, are knowingly not submitting test scores generated by 2 million minority students. The exclusions are based on a loophole that allow groups to be excluded when the group is not considered to be statistically significant.
When future teachers consider testing as an academic topic, they learn that tests serve many purposes. Included on such a list are evaluation and information. Problems can occur when attempting to use the same assessment to meet both purposes. The situation with high stakes testing reminds of comments Helen Barrett has made about electronic portfolios. She claims that when colleges use electronic portfolios to evaluate programs and students the value of the portfolio for self reflection is diminished. Students in such a system are reluctant to use the portfolio to explore strengths and weaknesses. The situation with standardized tests seems similar. Once consequences related to performance are in play, the interest in the information value of the tests become secondary.
