High-Stakes Testing: Coping With Collateral Damage

The federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act has thrust high-stakes testing (its goals, methods, and consequences) into the educational limelight. The four-fold purpose of this book is to: 1) describe the nature of high-stakes testing; 2) identify types of collateral damage that have attended the testing programs; 3) analyze methods different groups of people have chosen for coping with the damage; and 4) suggest lessons to be learned from the high-stakes-testing experience. The six groups of people whose coping strategies are inspected include: a) politicians and their staffs; b) educational administrators and their staffs; c) parents and the public; d) test makers and test administrators; e) teachers; and f) students. Importantly, the author avoids aligning himself with the test-bashing rhetoric of those who oppose high-stakes testing, especially the No Child Left Behind Act.