A Message on Accountability and the Impact of High-Stakes Testing

Sue Swaim, Executive Director
National Middle School Association

The American public believes our schools can do better than they are currently doing - that education reform cannot happen without additional money, but that money alone is not the answer. Further, the public believes accountability is needed, and testing is supported 3 to 1 as an accountability strategy. These are the general findings of the Educational Testing Service's major survey of 1,054 adults and eight focus groups. It is considered by some to be the most comprehensive study done to date of public, parent, educator, and policy-maker attitudes toward standards-based reform and the role of testing in the effort to achieve accountability in public schools.

Entitled "A Measured Response: Americans Speak on Education Reform," the report can be accessed on the Internet at ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/corp/2001_survey_presentation.pdf. It proves to be interesting and thought-provoking reading.

Overall, the report says the public is looking for a balanced approach to education reform that includes both funding and accountability. The public supports testing, but not an overreliance on tests. The report says the American public believes our education system in not in crisis, but certainly needs some hard work focused on school improvement. The study shows that 38% of the respondents felt there was an overemphasis on test scores, 37% were concerned about teaching to the test, and 28% felt too much time was spent on testing. Nevertheless, when the question was posed, "Based on concerns/values you have heard about standardized testing, do you support or oppose greater use of testing as part of a broader education initiative?" 68% of the respondents favored testing, while 22% opposed it.

Why should middle level educators, in particular, be knowledgeable about this report and others like it? Because it highlights the critical need for each of us to become actively engaged in advocating for quality middle level education based upon the needs and characteristics of young adolescents. We know that teaching young adolescents is the most demanding and complex job in all of education. And, we know the importance of communicating regularly and effectively with parents so that we become educational partners with them during this important time in the lives of young adolescents. However, this report clearly shows why we must also increase our efforts in communicating the key messages and needs of middle level education to community members at large and policy makers in particular. It is time for our individual and collective voices to speak out regarding testing and the bigger accountability picture.

No one argues the importance of accountability in our schools and classrooms, or can one dispute the fact that when tests are appropriately developed and implemented, they are important tools that help every school evaluate its progress towards achieving academic excellence for every student. However, today we find ourselves in an age of accountability that too often defines school success almost solely on the results of high-stakes tests. This is a mistake. Successful schools for young adolescents are much more than test results. Middle school accountability must be based upon a broader database, for tests alone cannot provide the evidence needed or assess the progress made on other important areas of the school's total curriculum and its many goals.

As we struggle with the number of tests to administer and the appropriate use of test results, we must not lose our focus on the fact that education, particularly at the middle level, involves considerably more than the very limited aspects of schooling that are assessed by paper and pencil tests. Test scores alone are simply an inadequate yardstick by which to measure anyone's education. Though standardized tests have merit, their serious limitations in evaluating both the adequacy of an individual's education and the competency of a faculty should be openly acknowledged, while giving full recognition to other educational goals.

As John Lounsbury, one of middle level education's founders, has observed, "Education, particularly in a democracy, has to involve heart as well as head, attitude as well as information, spirit as well as scholarship, and conscience as well as competence." Consider the meaning and potential impact of his words as we advocate for the full implementation of the middle school concept that moves us well beyond the initial organizational changes and focuses on significant changes in curriculum and in the ways teachers and students interact in the classroom. Research makes it clear that when middle schools implement - in curriculum and instructional practices - what our knowledge of learning and human development supports, students make measurable gains in academic achievement.

Lounsbury claims, "The effective middle school is not just a teaching factory; it is a laboratory of living where important lessons are derived from the relationships among and between students and teachers as well as from the formal instruction provided. Middle schools must accept responsibility for goals broader than the temporary acquisition of information or the mastery of basic skills. They should seek to improve students' reading skills, to be sure, but also to engender a love of reading and impart those skills and attitudes needed by a lifelong learner."

"A Measured Response: Americans Speak on Education Reform" leaves the door open for supporting accountability that goes beyond high-stakes testing. As educators, we can readily embrace accountability measures when they are designed and implemented to improve student learning. We have strong research results and promising practices to share that shed a critical light on testing and accountability expectations…and no one can speak to these issues better than those of us who live it everyday.

The time is right for National Middle School Association, its members, and its affiliate organizations to refocus our advocacy efforts. Working together we can make a difference by calling for high-performing middle level schools that focus on one thing: the learning and healthy growth of every single student. Accountability as an ongoing process based upon a broad database … YES! High-stakes testing and improvement on a single test at all costs … NO! As Lounsbury warns, "Unless middle schools are supported in fulfilling their inescapable responsibilities for developing well-educated adults who are also healthy, ethical, and productive citizens, we could find ourselves in the position of winning the battle to improve test scores, but losing the war to build a better America."