The pressure to raise test scores and to compete with other countries generated bythe 1983 publication of A Nation at Riskhas led us in directions that decidedly do not keep students at the center inour focus. In particular, the recent wave of school reform enacted as law in theUSin 2001 under the mantle of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), mandates that allpublic schools make Adequate Yearly Progress demonstrated by raising scores onstandardized tests.
Inevitably,this puts pressure on teachers and schools to raise test scores at all costs.Unintended results range from relatively benign, but educationally unsound,practices like “teaching to the test” to seriously fraudulent activity, such asmanufacturing false results.
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