Implementing Curricular Change through State-Mandated Testing: Ethical Issues.

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Mathison, Sandra
Copyright Year	1991
Abstract	Many states use standardized testing to control what happens in schools. Tests determine who can teach, who can be promoted to the next grade, and who can graduate with what sort of credentials. The current public dissatisfaction with schooling has left state offices of education casting about for any way to improve education. According to one common view, teachers do not teach what they should-the state curriculum or syllabus. State education authorities have several mechanisms at their disposal for controlling curriculum-for example, statewide textbook adoption in Texas. Porter has analyzed the various forms external standards can take in the pursuit of good schooling.' In New York, and I suspect in many other states, state-mandated testing exerts a major control over what is taught and how. Cohen has viewed assessment as an information system out of which arises policy initiatives. Madaus, however, views assessment instrumentally as the means by which policy initiatives are implemented. Testing has spread to all levels of schooling and to most subjects, serving a multiplicity of purposes-accountability, student assessment, student certification, and program evaluation. The logic is simple: Testing certain content in certain ways will result in an alignment of classroom practices with the official view of what and how subjects should be taught-what Popham calls a "curricular magnet." 4 In the last decade, the use of state-mandated tests has become a predominate strategy in educational reform efforts, and no state has escaped the appeal of this
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
Volume Number	6
Alternate Webpage(s)	http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/jcs/jcs_1991spring_mathison.pdf
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article