A survey of third-grade English Language Learner teachers reveals that Proposition 203 and the state's high-stakes testing policy are not improving education in Arizona.

From the high-stakes Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards, or AIMS, to the Stanford 9 - now being replaced by Terra Nova - and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, our children are being drilled on a seemingly perpetual basis.

Using several analyses of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test data from 25 states, a link between pressures associated with high-stakes testing and student achievement could not be established. The results of this research suggest that increases in testing pressure are related to increased retention in grade and drop-out rates.

In this article, EPRU Fellow David Berliner looks at testing for teacher quality and finds that some current tests are inadequate.

Minority students in Arizona's Class of 2006 continue to score very low on the high school AIMS exit exam and remain most in danger of not receiving their diplomas on graduation day, a study released Thursday concluded.

The 2004 high school AIMS test was not overloaded with tough, pre-college questions, and most struggling students could pass the exit exam if they received targeted tutoring, researchers from two state universities reported last week.

Sharon Nichols and EPRU Fellow David Berliner discuss the findings of their new report, The Inevitable Corruption of Indicators and Educators Through High-Stakes Testing. They note that the pressure of high-stakes tests is forcing school districts and state Departments of Education to take inappropriate and at times unsavory actions to avoid being labeled as failing for not meeting certain benchmarks.

Find report in PDF

The over-reliance on high-stakes testing has serious negative repercussions that are present at every level of the public school system. Test scores are the indicator that the federal government uses to hold educators, administrators, schools, and school districts accountable. By attaching high stakes to test scores, those involved and the test scores can be corrupted.

Special Education students have skills other than those measured by AIMS, which resembles a college entrance exam. These skills should be recognized with a certificate of high school completion, and the students not labeled as failures.

A news report on the Amrein-Berliner studies on high-stakes testing.

A news report on the two high-stakes studies by Audrey Amrein and David Berliner titled "The Impact of High-Stakes Tests on Student Academic Performance" and "An Analysis of Some Unintended and Negative Consequences of High-Stakes Testing."

This study looked at data from 28 states where high-stakes testing programs are already in place and found no systemic evidence of improved achievement after states implemented high-stakes testing programs. Report and Appendix total 236 pages in two sections.

This study examined the unintended consequences of high-stakes tests in 16 states that have implemented high-stakes graduation exams. In those states the authors found increased dropout rates, decreased graduation rates, and higher rates of younger people taking the GED equivalency exams. Report and appendix total 138 pages in two sections.

With the recent re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that calls for testing at virtually every grade level, a growing debate is taking place regarding the utility of mass, but especially high-stakes, testing whereby schools are held accountable for increased student achievement.

An op-ed piece on 2001 results of the Program on International Student Assessment.

In 1998 Massachusetts began state-sponsored, annual achievement testing of all students in three public school grades. The state is treating scores and ratings as though they were precise educational measures of high significance. A review of tenth-grade mathematics test scores from academic high schools in metropolitan Boston showed that statistically they are not.