Story Archives of 'Standardized Testing'

President Bush introduced No Child Left Behind in 2001. And since then the federal law has been controversial, to put it mildly. Its goal is to increase accountability and student proficiency in the classroom. And it does so by tying federal funding to how schools perform on standardized tests.

Critics say the so-called “teach to the test” system leaves students foundering. Test prep companies, like Kaplan and Princeton Review, however, have done remarkably well. Kaplan’s revenues went from $354 million in 2000 to more than $2 billion today.

Jeremy Miller is a high school science teacher in Denver. He worked on-and-off for Kaplan for nine years, most recently as an in-school “coach” for its SAT and Regents’ Advantage program and branded K12 lesson plans. He earned $295 a day, more than all but the most senior teachers, and he came away with some valuable lessons on American’s broken public school system. His article "Tyranny of the Test" is in the September issue of Harper’s Magazine.

Read Harper's interview with Jeremy Miller here.

(Photo by Dave Scelfo)

State education officials released testing results showing that more schools and more school districts may face sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The results showed that 44-percent of elementary and middle school children did not make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, based on reading and math tests for grades three through eight.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Amy Quinton talked to Education Commissioner Lyonel Tracy who had a different take on the poor results.

This summer many new elementary school teachers across the state have discovered that they need to pass a competency test in order to teach this fall.

The unexpected requirement comes straight from Washington under the No Child Left Behind Law.

The test applies to kindergarten through sixth grade teachers -- at least those who are paid with federal dollars.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Amy Quinton reports.

Ever since the No Child Left Behind legislation passed, New Hampshire educators have been thinking about tests.

A few years from now, No Child Left Behind, or NCLB, will require students to take a test every year from 3rd through 8th grade in math and language arts.

Those test results will determine whether a school is doing fine, or must offer additional tutoring to students, reorganize its curriculum, or in a worst-case scenario fire all of its teachers.

With such high stakes, a significant issue has emerged- whether the test should measure how much students know at a certain point, or how much they?ve learned since the beginning of the year. In the third part of our series on No Child Left Behind, NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein reports on a new wrinkle in the debate over testing.

High school 10th graders in New Hampshire face a barrage of statewide tests this week.
Their scores won?t effect their grades?.and the result is that students don?t take the tests seriously. To solve that problem, officials at Concord High hope that incentives?food and prizes?will encourage kids to give it their best. The plan has attracted criticism?.some say doing well should be incentive enough?.others argue the students are simply lacking school pride. Dan Clary, assistant principal at Concord High, came up with a new plan.