President's Viewpoint
Test Tosterone

At the risk of getting run over by the testing juggernaut, I take issue with the abuses and excesses.

Every election, it seems, politicians come up with one or two "get tough" issues. In years past, they talked tough about drugs, deadbeat dads and the death penalty. But campaign 2000 brought something new. A surprising number of politicians--Democrats and Republicans alike --talked tough about testing.

Their macho message was simple, if not simplistic: Testing will force students to shape up. Testing will put steel in our schools. Testing equals accountability.

At the risk of getting run over by this testing juggernaut, I'd like to raise several urgent issues. I have a duty to raise these issues because I am an outspoken advocate of standards-based reform-- and because, I fear, public support for this reform is jeopardized by abuses and excesses involving high-stakes tests.

Let me be very clear, I favor testing. Valid, reliable tests yield rich data about students' strengths and weaknesses. We need such data in order to target interventions toward kids who need help.

But in a growing number of states, tests are being used for punitive purposes. Students are being denied promotion or graduation-- often in an arbitrary, inflexible manner--based on a single test.

This is playing with fire. It is "accountability" by blunt instrument. And I'm against it.

As a matter of fairness and accuracy, tests should be one component of a multifaceted approach to assessing a child's progress. Every teacher --and every parent-- knows that some kids are natural test takers, and some kids are not. With so much at stake in a child's life, assessments should not be based on a single snapshot or a single instrument.

More broadly, as educators we must not allow the tests to swallow the schools. In a growing number of states, is seems as though the tests are driving everything. They are driving curriculum. They are driving promotion and graduation decisions. They are driving--and distorting--the entire classroom experience of teachers and students.

Increasingly, teachers have no choice but to "teach to the test." In some states, schools spend entire days teaching students how to take the test--in other words, the techniques and tricks necessary to do well on the test.

And the corollary of "teaching to the test" is this: if it's not on the test, it doesn't get taught. In many places, courses such as civics, physical education, and art are being eliminated, as are school plays, classroom discussions, and other activities that enrich and enliven the school experience.

This is a fundamental mistake. There are important things we should be teaching that cannot be measured by tests. In addition, I believe deeply in preserving the creativity and discretion of skilled teachers. I'm worried that these things are being squeezed out systematically by our growing obsession with testing.

As states and school districts design accountability systems, they should bear in mind the words that Albert Einstein displayed prominently in his Princeton office. "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

Politicians will continue to talk tough about tests. But as educators, we have a professional responsibility to talk back. We must insist on standards and tests that aim to challenge children, not terrorize them. That is our high-stakes test.

Comments? You can E-mail Bob Chase at BobChase@nea.org. If you would like a response, please be sure to include your name and NEA local affiliate.