Incentives and Test-Based Accountability

In class this week, Katie McKnight introduced us to the ideology of Diane Ravitch and suggested that we all follow this educational writer on Twitter. So I did! Diane Ravitch's ideology is simple: standardized testing and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the crisis; they are "demoralizing teachers, undermining professionalism and harming kids." In one of her tweets on July 27, 2011, she says "Be sure to read National Research Council report on failure of 'Incentives & Test-Based Accountability." So I did a little Google search and found this article: "National Research Council Gives High-Stakes Testing an F" by Alain Jehlen.

The article reports that the National Research Council (NRC) has concluded that there is no scientific basis for the current heavy reliance on high-stakes tests "for measuring student achievement, teacher quality, and school performance." They looked at testing imposed by the No Child Left Behind law, the effects of graduation tests in some states, bonuses offered to teachers who have raised their students' test scores, and "other ways in which rewards or punishments have been used in an effort to lift scores" known as incentives.

According to the article, none of these tactics have worked. That, to me, is the crisis; Diane Ravitch has a point. The panel said attaching incentives or punishments (“high stakes”) to test scores pushes teachers to focus on the material that is tested, and leads them to leave out material or entire subjects that are not tested. “Current tests do not measure such important characteristics as creativity, curiosity, persistence, values, collaboration, and socialization,” they pointed out.

This is relevant to me as an AUSL resident, because AUSL has a reputation, whether it is true or not, of being "test-driven" and emphasizing the importance of increasing students' ACT scores. On our first day of orientation, we were told that our goal is to get students to score a 22 on the ACT. As a new teacher, I feel burdened by the emphasis on test scores and would much rather create creative, curious, persistent, collaborative citizens. Who gets into this profession and says, "I want to be a teacher because I am passionate about test scores"? No one. I just wish there was a more obvious way to merge teaching to the test and creating a community of creative learners.