Yesterday's New York Times reports on two new studies that challenge test critics' claims that high-stakes testing undermines learning and hurts struggling students. Both studies instead find that high-stakes testing brings about academic gains, particularly for minority students. The first, by Martin Carnoy and Susanna Loeb, is to be published next month in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. The study is not yet available but, says the Times, the authors find that states whose tests have serious consequences did better on nationwide tests and that the more consequences the state imposes, the better the state's minority students do. The second study, by Margaret Raymond and Eric Hanushek, was reviewed in last week's Gadfly. [See our review of "Shopping for Evidence Against School Accountability," by Margaret Raymond and Eric Hanushek.]
"New ammunition for backers of do-or-die exams," by Greg Winter, The New York Times, April 23, 2003