Standardized Testing and School Accountability

Abstract

This article explores the use of standardized tests to hold schools accountable. The history of testing for accountability is reviewed, and it is shown that currently between-school differences account for less than 10% of the variance in student scores, in part because the progress of individuals is small compared to the spread of achievement within an age cohort, and, possibly, due to lack of alignment between instruction and assessment. A review of the literature on the effects of the introduction of such tests in high-stakes accountability regimes suggests that the effects can be positive and the size of the effects is substantial. Therefore, although the validity of such tests may be problematic in terms of the intended inferences, their introduction may nevertheless be justified by their impact. The article concludes with a number of suggestions on improving tests for high-stakes accountability.

Notes

¹ Indeed, at the heart of the legislation there is a perverse incentive for students to perform badly on the tests, because if the school fails to make adequate yearly progress toward the goal of proficiency for all students, then parents get additional rights to supplementary education and choice of schools.

² The metric used for reporting CVA scores for secondary schools has a mean of 1000 with a score of 1048 representing a school in which on average students scored one grade higher in each of the eight included subjects (e.g., so that a student gains eight grade Bs in such a school rather than eight grade Cs in an average school). The standard deviation of the CVA scores in 2007 was 17, equivalent to 0.35 grade points.

³ This is the correct form of expression for these numbers in British English.