Wednesday, February 20, 2008

E.D. Hirsch Jr. should check his facts before embracing the hype surrounding Massachusetts' high-stakes testing scheme ["The Knowledge Connection," op-ed, Feb. 16].

Massachusetts classrooms started teaching to the test in earnest in 2003 when the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam began to "count" as a graduation requirement. But state results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the neutral federal benchmark, remained essentially flat. In 2003, 38 percent of Massachusetts eighth-graders scored "proficient," and 5 percent scored "advanced" in reading. Four years later, the "proficient" percentage had increased one point to 39 percent, but the "advanced" percentage declined one point. The state's NAEP scores actually rose faster in the four years before the MCAS graduation test was implemented.

In fact, Massachusetts students performed very well on the NAEP and other measures of achievement before politicians mandated the MCAS. Sadly, they now share with their peers around the country the negative effects of the No Child Left Behind law, with higher urban dropout rates, a narrowed curriculum and too much teaching to the test. Meanwhile, gaps in achievement between the rich and poor, black students and white students remain as wide as ever.

LISA GUISBOND

Policy Analyst

National Center for Fair and Open Testing

Cambridge, Mass.