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Annual Testing: Learning What Works

Raising academic standards is an important first step towards improving our schools. We will never know, however, if we are reaching those standards unless we measure student performance. To get truly useful information that allows teachers to identify individual students who need help, we must test every child every year.

Tests have been around as long as schools have. What is new about today's tests is that they are much more sophisticated in their ability to diagnose problem areas in student achievement.

The medical field provides an apt analogy. For years, doctors used X-rays to diagnose broken bones and other ailments. They worked fine much of the time. But then came the MRI, a much more powerful diagnostic tool. Suddenly doctors could identify a whole host of illnesses at earlier stages and make better recommendations for courses of treatment.

In much the same way, today's state-of-the-art tests can help educators identify the specific learning problems that a student may be experiencing. Because these tests are directly linked to academic standards—a very important change from the past—we can find out whether students are learning what they need to learn. These new tests do not simply measure basic skills; they measure important content knowledge too.

People complain that testing causes schools to emphasize "teaching to the test." Each state, however, must design tests that match what children are expected to learn. That means "teaching to the test" is really teaching those things we have already decided every child should know and be able to do.

A good testing system that takes test data and breaks it down by student and classroom, as well as by school and by school district, can empower teachers to tailor their teaching to their students' needs. With tests aligned to state standards, the testing system can be designed to identify and then to help the children who are in danger of being left behind.

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Last updated—December 17, 2004 (jer)