ISSUE PAPER: What Do Test Scores in Texas Tell Us

摘要

During the past decade, several states have begun using the results on statewide tests as the basis for rewarding and sanctioning individual students, teachers, and schools. Although testing and accountability are intended to improve achievement and motivate staff and students, concerns have been raised in both the media and the professional literature (e.g., Heubert & Hauser, 1999; Linn, 2000) about possible unintended consequences of these programs. We conducted several analyses to examine the issue of whether TAAS scores can be trusted to provide an accurate index of student skills and abilities. First, we used scores on the reading and math tests that are administered as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to investigate how much students in Texas have improved and whether this improvement is consistent with what has occurred nationwide. NAEP scores are a good benchmark for this purpose because they reflect national content standards and they are not subject to the same external pressures to boost scores as there are on the TAAS.