Don't Fault the 'Dentist:' An Answer to Critics - school accountability

School Administrator, Feb, 2001 by Jon C. Marshall

Squandered Resources

The tests taken by students are only valid if the results are generalizable to learning beyond the specific tests. This generalizability requires that the test items represent a random sampling of possible behaviors, which could be reasonably assessed from the totality of student learning. Yet states disregard this when they build their tests and implement training procedures that promote test taking as an end in itself. Guskey calls this accountability. The only thing these tests tell us is the degree of success that educators have had in training students to take the tests.

If the same billions of dollars now being spent on accountability were diverted to high-quality staff development, designed to meet each district's defined constancy of purpose, we would obtain much greater dividends. Focusing on developing effective teaching and learning processes that support district goals would be a much wiser allocation of scarce educational resources.

The "Best Dentist" story, composed by a local school leader who can see and feel the harm perpetuated by wayward testing practices, provides a bit of levity in a stressed educational environment that insists on counting our collective cavities.

Jon Marshall is a professor of educational leadership at the State University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Ga. 30118-5160.