Chestnut Hill, Mass. – High stakes exams that 30 million American schoolchildren take each year – at a cost of $2.2 billion – carry both intended and accidental consequences for students, teachers and schools, according to a new book about America's testing divide by three Boston College researchers.
"The Paradoxes of High Stakes Testing: How They Affect Students, Their Parents, Teachers, Principals, Schools, and Society" examines America's obsession with testing and whether it has undermined the classroom experience it was designed to improve, according to co-authors George Madaus, Michael Russell and Jennifer Higgins, of BC's Lynch School of Education.
The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which imposed a new testing regimen, is approaching Congressional re-authorization and the authors say reforms within reach include:
Co-authors George Madaus, the emeritus Boisi Professor in Education and Public Policy, Michael Russell, an associate professor, and researcher Jennifer Higgins are testing experts affiliated with the nationally-renown Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Education Policy at the Lynch School.