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High stakes, standardized exams have been billed as a panacea for our educational ills. . . . [T]his [is] a sham and an appallingly bad educational strategy which guarantees poor re- sults, reduced motivation and legions of graduates without the skills necessary to live a decent and fulfilling life.
-Peter Henry, "The Case Against Standardized Testing"
High-stakes standardized testing has become ubiquitous in US educa- tion. We argue that not only is such testing bad for education, but it also contradicts curriculum and instruction aligned with professional standards promoted by NCTE and innovative educators. Additionally, contradic- tory to the concept of "no child left behind," high- stakes standardized tests have negative impacts on students of color. However, we also know that English teachers can make a positive difference in the education of youth through creative curricular resistance and by keeping the big picture of the dis- cipline as the heart and soul of curriculum, instruc- tion, and assessment.
The Bipartisan Politics of High-Stakes Testing
The modern-day, high-stakes standardized test- ing movement can effectively be traced back to the 1983 publication of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. This Reagan-era report sounded an alarm within public education in the United States, and, even though much of the report's education crisis was found to be man- ufactured, it had an enduring impact on public education: Fifty-four state-level commissions on ed- ucation were created within one year of the report's publication. Within three years, 26 states raised graduation requirements, and 35 states instituted reforms that revolved around testing and increased course loads for students. By 1994, 43 states had implemented statewide assessments for K-5, and by 2000 every US state but Iowa had administered a state-mandated test. Within the first week of taking office in 2001, with the overwhelming support of Democrats and Republicans alike, President G. W. Bush pushed for federal Title I funding to be tied to student test scores, resulting in the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002 (Au).
As policy for more than a decade, the required testing under NCLB is well known to educators: high-stakes testing is mandated in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in...