Raising Standardized Achievement Test Scores and the Origins of Test Score Pollution

Abstract

In the current climate of dissatisfaction with public education, the standardized achievement test score has been the operational definition for educational-achievement, and raising test scores has been equated with educational improvement. The pressure to raise test scores has resulted in practices which pollute the inferences we make from these scores. We examine two major sources of test score pollution: (a) how public school personnel prepare students to take the standardized test and (b) nonstandard practices and conditions under which tests are administered. We also examine the apparent causes of this pollution and its effects on testing practices in American education.