High Stakes Testing

In his article, "Neither Fair Nor Accurate," in Rethinking Schools (Winter 2010-2011), Wayne Au raises six arguments why it is wrong to evaluate individual teacher performance based on students' standardized test scores.  In one of his arguments, "Year-to-Year Test Score Instability," he observes...

"...Test scores of students taught by the same teacher fluctuate wildly from year to year.  In one study comparing two years of test scores across five urban districts, more than two-thirds of the bottom-ranked teachers one year had moved out of the bottom ranks the next year.  Of this group, a full third went from the bottom 20 percent one year to the top 40 percent the next.  Similarly, one-third of the teachers who ranked highest one year kept their top ranking the next, and almost a third of the formerly top-ranked teachers landed in the bottom 40 percent in year two....

"...The year-to-year instability... shows that test scores have very little to do with the effectiveness of a single teacher and more to do with the change of students from year to year...".

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