WashPost Letter on Teaching to the Test

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

TEACHING TO THE TEST IN MASSACHUSETTS

Washington Post Letter-to-the-Editor
February 20, 2008

E.D. Hirsch Jr. should check his facts before embracing the hype 
surrounding Massachusetts' high-stakes testing scheme ["The Knowledge 
Connection," op-ed, Feb. 16].

Massachusetts classrooms started teaching to the test in earnest in 2003 
when the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam began to 
"count" as a graduation requirement. But state results on the National 
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the neutral federal 
benchmark, remained essentially flat. In 2003, 38 percent of 
Massachusetts eighth-graders scored "proficient," and 5 percent scored 
"advanced" in reading. Four years later, the "proficient" percentage had 
increased one point to 39 percent, but the "advanced" percentage 
declined one point. The state's NAEP scores actually rose faster in the 
four years before the MCAS graduation test was implemented.

In fact, Massachusetts students performed very well on the NAEP and 
other measures of achievement before politicians mandated the MCAS. 
Sadly, they now share with their peers around the country the negative 
effects of the No Child Left Behind law, with higher urban dropout 
rates, a narrowed curriculum and too much teaching to the test. 
Meanwhile, gaps in achievement between the rich and poor, black students 
and white students remain as wide as ever.

Lisa Guisbond

Policy Analyst

National Center for Fair and Open Testing