I love data, but K-12 standardized tests have lost the plot

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Student test scores aren't looking good, and schools aren't being held accountable for poor results. That's not even considering whether the right things are being tested.

I learned this the hard way. My family is zoned for a high-performing public elementary school in Texas — one where students consistently score above average on standardized tests. And there are so many tests. My first and third grader took about a dozen standardized exams annually, including STAAR tests, i-Ready tests and MAP tests. Each year, my children came home with great test results.

There was just one problem. Despite these strong scores, I was surprised to find that my children weren't reading chapter books. Basic number stacking for addition and subtraction was mind-boggling for them. Subjects from spelling to civics were nowhere to be found in the curriculum. At one point, my then-second grader literally asked, "What is spelling?"

How do you square that circle? The answer: Standardized tests might not measure what parents believe their children are being taught. Worse, the emphasis on testing may crowd out other core learning milestones.

I say this as a full-on testing supporter. In addition to being a mom, I'm a social scientist. I love data, and by extension, testing. It's absolutely necessary in education. Turns out, report cards with smiley faces don't illuminate Lucy's knowledge of mathematics or help Juan decide what public school is best for his son.

Yet the current system, where kids are bombarded by tests and parents by test scores, has real limitations. For example, 90% of parents believe their kids are performing at or above grade level, a 2023 survey found — even though tests show that fewer than half of all students meet that bar.

Standardized testing became commonplace in the latter half of the 20th century as a way to hold schools accountable for education outcomes and to create transparency for parents. The introduction of No Child Left Behind under President George W. Bush intensified that trend, mandating annual exams in reading and math and tying federal funding directly to test scores.

So, how is the system working? The National Assessment of Educational Progress — more commonly known as The Nation's Report Card — offers the best insight into how American children are doing in school. And the results are downright discouraging. Math scores for American 12th graders reached their lowest level on record in 2024. Reading scores have returned to 1990s levels.

Worse, there's little accountability left to fix the problem.

Roughly a decade after No Child Left Behind took effect and student scores peaked, the Obama administration began issuing waivers for noncompliance. This was because the law required that every student be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Most schools couldn't do that and couldn't all be restructured at once.

The Obama administration also put states at the helm for testing, which is how we ended up with different state tests and different measurements of what counts as being "at grade level." (For example, nationally Texas students rank below average in reading, but they appear to do better in state-based testing.) Shortly thereafter, gaps between high and low performers began to grow at the national level, which many education scholars attribute both to the introduction of screens and the loosening of accountability.

The result is our current standardized testing quagmire: lots of standardized testing, little accountability, and curricula that increasingly chase after the test. Consider: Why would a classroom take time to read books cover to cover or dissect animals in science or take long outdoor recesses?

Instead, school seems like a deep dive into increasingly small silos — what will be tested and practicing how it will be tested. Too often my children couldn't go out for recess or had to have silent lunches because other grades were testing.

There are no easy answers in education, but there are glimmers of hope. For example, in response to subpar reading test scores, Mississippi took action — not by shutting down failing schools across the board, the way earlier generations of testing enthusiasts would have it, but by surging tutoring funding, retraining teachers in basic phonics, intervening early for struggling learners, and requiring third graders who could not read to repeat the grade until they could.

Elsewhere, there are grassroots efforts to encourage teaching more civics in younger grades, opting out of screen-based assignments for paper and pen, assigning full books, and having more recess time (a recommendation also endorsed by the CDC). Tests and test practice could be limited to certain times of the school year — part of the curriculum, not what the full thing revolves around.

Without improved accountability and a holistic approach to curriculum, our standardized testing regime is the tail wagging the dog. And judging by student scores and the curriculum gaps I've seen, the dog is off the sidewalk.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Abby McCloskey is a columnist, podcast host, and consultant. She directed domestic policy on two presidential campaigns and was director of economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute.

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