Book Focus

Test Torn

University of Arizona Professor David Berliner heard horror stories from all over while writing Collateral Damage, a book about the harm inflicted by high-stakes tests. But the one he tells on his book tour is his own. His grandchild, an avid student and good test-taker who suffers from asthma, started wheezing during a test and asked his teacher to telephone for help. He was told to try to finish first. “We are lucky he didn’t die,” says Berliner. “What could make a teacher risk her student’s life?”

Berliner and co-author Sharon Nichols lay bare the impact of test-and-punish policies: narrowing and distortion of teaching, waste of time and money, cheating, tears, burnout.
They note there’s no evidence high-stakes testing lifts achievement.

They also explore alternate ways to hold schools accountable. One example: Britain and several other countries have inspectors visit every school to evaluate and help the staff improve. Independent inspectors won’t cover up bad news, Berliner and Nichols say, and on-site assessments can reflect the rich complexity of school life in a way
that test scores can’t.