No Child Left Behind: Testing, Reporting, and Accountability

In a major expansion of the federal role in education, the NoChild Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires annual testing, specifies a method for judging school effectiveness, sets a timeline forprogress, and establishes specific consequences in the case of failure. As the use of standardized testing to measure school accountability has expanded, so has the list of arguments for excusing the low achievement of whole categories of students. While special education law provides for testing with “accommodations,” in practice it has pushed educators to focus more on procedural compliance. The achievement of language-minority students has often been overlooked or mismeasured as school districts lacked the skill or will to administer appropriate assessments. 

This digest reviews how testing and reporting requirements will operate with respect to different groups of students and examines factors that could delay or dilute the guarantee of educational accountability in the academic achievement of all children.

Different States, Different Tests

Although the Act mandates annual testing for all states by 2005-2006, it does not provide federal standards for testing practices. Left to their own discretion, states have created a broad array of approaches. Some states test reading and math every year; others test those subjects at three or four-year intervals, and others test a variety of subjects in a variety of grades.

One critical difference in testing practices is whether states use norm-referenced or criterion-referenced tests. Norm-referenced tests assess a student’s broad knowledge, measuring performance against a relevant comparison group. Criterion-referenced tests measure specific skills in relation to pre-established standards of academic performance. Advocates of standards-based reform prefer criterion-referenced tests because they can be directly aligned to a given state’s standards. However, because they are generally individually designed for each state, they are far more expensive to create and produce results that are more difficult to compare. 

Evolving Testing Patterns. While the Act mandates annual testing by 2005-2006, it does not explicitly require states to administer the same test from year to year. Thus, states like Louisiana and Maryland, which test students in grades three through eight with a mix of norm- and criterion-referenced tests, may technically be in compliance, yet produce results that lack consistency over time.

States have some flexibility as to what subjects are tested and when. Prior to 2005-2006, they must measure proficiency of mathematics and reading or language arts, and do this at least once during grades three through five, six through nine, and 10 through 12.  By 2005-2006, states must measure student achievement annually against state academic and achievement standards in grades three through eight in mathematics and reading or language arts. Beginning in 2007-2008, states must also include science assessments at least once during each of these three grade spans. So, by 2007, students will be tested annually from grades 3 to 8 in readingand math, tested twice in the elementary grades in science, and then in reading, math, and science at least once in grades 10-12.