History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
With new school year comes barrage of high-stakes tests
- 09-09-2011
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By Julianne Hing and Hatty Lee/Color Lines
With the start of another school year comes the guarantee of yet another year packed full of testing for students. Standardized testing is an unavoidable part of U.S. schoolkids’ lives, and while the sheer number of tests students are subjected to has risen steadily over the last half century, the function of these tests has also changed. At the outset, federally mandated tests were often used for descriptive, diagnostic purposes. But over the course of a decades-long accountability movement, test scores have increasingly been used to monitor school performance, with sanctions and rewards attached. Increasingly, states are passing laws that tie teachers’ job evaluations and their job security to their students’ test scores. Testing, and using tests to hold students and educators accountable, is a central part of education policy today. That doesn’t mean it’s uncontroversial policy. (more...)
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