A Half-Century March Toward High-Stakes Testing

By natndoyle

  • Passage of ESEA

    Passage of ESEA
    The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is passed into federal law giving federal monies to public schools. Standardized tests begin to be used to evaluate how much students have learned.
    Teachers begin to be held accountable for the quality of their instruction based on students' scores.
    Students begin to be required to pass competency tests in order to graduate from high school.

  • Passage of NCLB

    Passage of NCLB
    The ESEA is revised and reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act. Educators are to be penalized if their students perform unsatisfactorily on standardized tests given by their state.

  • Creation of Two State-Level Assessment Consortia

    Creation of Two State-Level Assessment Consortia
    The NAEP's assessment of a sample of student's scores in key subject areas showed that different states had set different levels of performance for a student to be labeled "satisfactory'" The federal government finances two state-level assessment consortia - PARCC and SBAC. They are to create annual tests based on Common Core Standards.
    Many parts of the nation reject what they see as a forced national curriculum.
    Many states drop their membership to their chosen consortium.

  • Passage of ESSA

    Passage of ESSA
    The ESEA is revised again and reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act. This act continues the annual testing of students at many grade levels, but the states are to oversee the implementation of the assessment requirements.