Grinding the Antitesting Ax

By Eric Hanushek

Presented by Cassandra Calderón

What Is The Question Being Asked?

• Have testing and accountability proven worthwhile?

• Should public schools use exit exams as a means to measure achievement?

• Who should be held responsible for student performance?

• Complaints of NCLB’s testing & accountability requirements inaccurate tests, schools and teachers should not be responsible for test performance of unprepared/unmotivated students, misleading measure of school inadequacy

• Average impact of testing & accountability is 0.08 st. dev. of student achievement addition to GDP over next 80 years is$14 trillion (PV) or $45,000 for every man, woman, and child in U.S. today

• State-required high-school exams counterproductive decrease rate of high school graduation (2%) without increasing achievement

• Should not hold schools responsible for low achievement (NCLB) + School’s fault if student shows up for 12-plus years = nobody bears responsibility for low student achievement

What Are The Results?

• What should be the objective of the educational system? To maximize high school graduation or to maximize student achievement?

• Do exit exams really ensure a minimum level of quality?

• Should a more narrow and defined school curriculum be adopted to increase student performance at the expense of less subject matter?

• Would like to see how committee found that 0.08 improvement would lead to a $14 trillion increase in GDP

Critical Review