Raising the stakes: high-stakes testing and the attack on public education in New York

Over the last almost two decades, high-stakes testing has become increasingly central to New York’s schools. In the 1990s, the State Department of Education began requiring that secondary students pass five standardized exams to graduate. In 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act required students in grades three through eight to take math and language arts tests. Results from the state and federal tests are not only used to assess students but also to evaluate schools, with poorly performing schools facing overhaul and potentially privatization. Most recently, President Obama’s Race to the Top competition requires evaluating teachers based on their students’ test scores which, because of the way in which New York has constructed the grading curve, most teachers will be rated as ‘ineffective.’ Standardized testing, along with other neoliberal reforms such as granting the mayor of New York City control of the public schools, has been promoted as providing more objective assessments and increasing educational efficiency. However, I will suggest that high-stakes testing has come about as part of a larger neoliberal agenda to disparage public institutions and educators to justify reducing public expenditures and privatizing schools. Further, a brief review of testing and other policies indicates that they are neither objective nor efficient.