Historical Context of High Stakes Testing
1900’s – Eugenics Movement Standardized tests, a form of high stakes testing, has its roots in the eugenics movement, which was prevalent in the early 1900’s. Eugenics is the study of human heredity, aimed at “improving” the genetic quality of the “human stock.” Charles Spearman, who is among the founding fathers of intelligence testing, wrote in The Abilities of Man (1927) “an accurate measurement of everyone’s intelligence would seem to herald the feasibility of selecting the better endowed person for admission into citizenship – and even for the right of having offspring.” Alfred Binet, also prominent in the field of intelligence testing, created the Binet-Simon scale. This test was used to identify “defective” children in order to have a rationale for excluding them from public classrooms. This test was criticized for being highly subjective. Nevertheless the Binet-Simon scale continues to be used as the model for current IQ testing that even the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale developed by Lewis Terman, bears part of its name. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale is also grounded in eugenics. Terman introduced the concept of tracking or ability grouping based on standardized achievement tests in Measurement of Intelligence (1916).
In more modern times, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (1994) by Richard Hernstein and Charles Murray was also grounded on eugenics. Hernstein and Murray do not find any wrong in standardized tests, rather they attribute the differences to the genetic quality of the human stock. While the eugenic movement has, for the most part, ended, the classifying and sorting associated with standardized tests continues. Ironically, despite the deeply rooted history of standardized tests, only a small percentage of the population is knowledgeable about its origin and purposes.
1957 -- Launch of Sputnik The advent of standardized testing in American public education can be tied to the 1957 launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The Soviet Union successfully reached earth’s outer space, leaving the United States with a challenge to compete with its cold-war rival. This caused state and federal elected officials to begin to question the state of American education. Lawmakers believed that the Soviet Union’s feat as first in orbit was due to America’s “soft” education. They reacted by urging for increased standards in education, which included testing to assess school learning.
1970’s – Minimum Competency Testing Movement
The belief that the US was falling behind other nations led politicians in the 1970’s to create a minimum competency testing movement to reform education. They believed that with one set of basic skills, students would at least learn “minimum skills” needed to be productive citizens. Florida was one of the first states to implement a statewide minimum competency test, requiring students to pass prior to graduating from High School. Florida’s early gains were used as examples for how standards and accountability systems could improve education. However Florida’s policy was suspended when the “gains” reached a plateau and it discovered low passing rates and high dropout rates among ethnic minorities and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
1980’s – Minimum Competency Test Discarded
By the 1980’s the minimum competency test movement had almost ended. Beyond the Florida experience, there were suggestions that minimum competency tests promoted low standards of learning for all students. The content of these tests became the maximum expected educational level for student competency. There were perceptions that these test were “dumbing down” the content learned in schools.
1983 – A Nation at Risk Initiates High Stakes Testing Movement
In 1983 the National Commission on Education released A Nation at Risk one of the most influential reports on education of the past few decades. The report made the case that the US was performing poorly when compared to other countries. The report called for an end to minimum competency testing and recommended the beginning of high stakes testing, which would raise the nation’s standards of achievement. Despite its lack of scholarly research, the report caused great panic and the Commission recommended that states institute high standards to improve curricula and create rigorous assessments to hold schools accountable for those standards.
Today, twenty-two states offer schools incentives for high or improved test scores. Forty-five states hold schools accountable for test scores by publishing district report cards. Twenty-seven of those states hold schools accountable through rating and ranking processes; fourteen have the power to close, reconstitute, or take over low performing schools; sixteen have the authority to replace teachers and administrators; and eleven have the authority to revoke a school’s accreditation.
In Texas the public education curriculum is focused on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills system of testing, which was enacted by the Texas State legislature in the spring of 1990. The system has been revised over the past decade, but continues to be used as the main source of student – and school – accountability for school learning.
2002 – No Child Left Behind Sustains High Stakes Testing Movement
On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, the latest of federal initiatives to promote school reform and standardized testing for all children. The act enables America's public schools to receive federal funding, and creates new levels of accountability to ensure that those funds are producing “real results” to help every child in America receive a quality education. The act ties federal funds for public education to states’ performance on standardized tests for students as early as the third grade. This new federal mandate effectively heightens the movement of high stakes testing.
Questions? Cherie McCollough cherieUT@hotmail.com , Vickie Reyes:vickie.reyes@tgslc.org , Fernando Vasquez vasquezfernando@yahoo.com
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