Is That Your Final Answer?

By Jodie Morse

The 25 Boston teenagers marched last Monday down the city's famed Freedom Trail, past Paul Revere's home, to the office of Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci. They were armed with 800 letters of protest and a simple demand: that the Governor sit for the standardized test that will soon decide which students graduate from the state's public high schools. When an aide told them there was no time in his schedule--the test takes more than 18 hours--the students handed over a poster-size report card on the Governor's program to raise academic performance. His marks: an incomplete, a D-minus and two F's.

As shots go, theirs wasn't heard round the world. But the students are foot soldiers in a growing revolt being waged in classrooms, car-pool lines and statehouses across the U.S. The enemy? The standardized exams being taken by so many kids in the final days of the school year. Unlike the fill-in-the-bubble tests of yesteryear, which often did little more than single out kids for accelerated classes, this exhaustive new breed of tests is increasingly used to determine not only whether students get diplomas but also whether the school gets funding and teachers get raises--not to mention whether students will spend their upcoming vacation sunning on the beach or sweating out summer school.

As the stakes have risen, so has the pressure to perform--and the frustration among parents, students and educators. In the past year, protest-the-test groups have sprouted in at least 36 states. In Colorado, more than a thousand parents, teachers and students surrounded the state capitol in March and demanded that Governor Bill Owens take the test. (He too declined.) Parents in Louisiana, Indiana and California have gone a step further, filing lawsuits alleging that the tests violate their children's civil rights. In Illinois, 200 students claimed they flunked the test on purpose. Teachers are taking to the streets, with some walking out of exams or quitting the profession entirely. Even worse, some are trying to beat the tests by any means available. In the past few months alone, allegations of teacher-assisted cheating have roiled schools in California, Florida, Maryland, New York and Ohio. A common line of defense among these teachers: they cracked under the pressure.

While few dispute the need to gauge student achievement, many are beginning to challenge the calculators. In practice, the tests have spawned an epidemic of distressing headlines: students failing--and being held back--en masse; frenzied parents enrolling first-graders in professional test-prep courses; property values being influenced by test scores in local schools. Even those schools that have posted gains say the success has come at a hefty price. Educators say they have had to dumb down their lessons to teach the often picayune factoids covered by the exams. A study released last month by the University of Virginia found that while some schools had boosted their performance on Virginia's exam, teachers had to curtail field trips, elective courses and even student visits to the bathroom--all in an effort to cram more test prep into the school day. Says the study's author, education professor Daniel Duke: "These schools have become battlefield units."

And it is parents who are heeding the call to arms. They charge that too much is riding on a single testing session where questions often resemble those in Trivial Pursuit. "In many ways, it's not an academically rigorous test," says Rob Riordan, a former teacher and father of a Boston 10th-grader. "It's full of trivialities. It's a crapshoot." A sample question from the Massachusetts exam for 10th grade: The Song dynasty in China was brought to an end in the 13th century by: a) an extended civil war, b) the Mongol invasion, c) economic collapse or d) a military revolt. No wonder Governor Cellucci was so busy the other day. (The correct answer is b.)

Another criticism is that because many testing companies find it economical to recycle test questions, the firms seldom allow schools to return copies of their graded exams to students so they, and their teachers, might learn from their mistakes.

While high scores translate into bonuses and raises for teachers, a low performance can put their jobs--and their pride--on the line. Last month the Massachusetts board of education mandated that math teachers in any school in which more than 30% of students fail the state math test must prove they can pass a competency exam. As a result, an excellent math teacher in a low-scoring inner-city school must prove her knowledge, while an incompetent teacher at a suburban school with higher-scoring students will be spared that indignity. Thus recruiting and retention of good teachers for inner-city schools will be made that much harder. Colorado has already seen a flurry of resignations and transfer requests by teachers in its poorer pockets. Laments James Popham, professor emeritus at UCLA's Graduate School of Education: "Standardized tests are putting educators under pressure in a game they can't win."

Unless, of course, they play by their own rules. That's apparently what happened at Maryland's Potomac Elementary School, where students donned "We're No. 1" buttons--and the school won a slice of a $2.75 million state kitty--after ranking the best in their county on last year's exam. The school's principal Karen Karch resigned last month amid allegations that she coached students on examinations and gave them extra time. The matter is currently the subject of a state investigation. "People don't cheat when there's a level playing field," says Lynn Winters, a researcher for the Long Beach, Calif., school district. "But when teachers feel backed into a corner, who knows what's going to happen?"

Many teachers maintain it can be difficult to draw the line between helping students do their best and outright cheating. A report in May by New York City's school investigator Edward Stancik offers a case in point. It cited a fourth-grade teacher whose "use of voice inflection" in asking questions--and emphasizing certain key words--gave the class an unfair advantage on the city's English exam.

Advocates of greater accountability in the schools contend that teachers--not the tests--are to blame for the cheating. But even some backers of tough standards are taking a second look at the tests. "Research shows that using test scores in combination with grades results in a more valid decision," says Walt Haney, a senior research associate at Boston College's Center for the Study of Testing. "The clear solution is to reduce the stakes." Such wisdom is swaying some politicians. Conceding that some tests have begun "to crowd out all other [classroom] endeavors," President Clinton this spring said testing is due for a "mid-course review." And on Capitol Hill, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone proposed legislation that would penalize states financially for using exams as the sole measure of a student.

The bill is unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled Congress. But several states are pursuing similar reforms. Ohio legislators introduced a bill this spring calling for a moratorium on the state's testing. After parent protests, Wisconsin shelved its all-or-nothing graduation test; the state now judges students on a portfolio of their work, including test scores, grades and letters of recommendation. Legislators in Massachusetts are considering a similar proposal. Florida has forsaken rote multiple-choice exams in favor of tests with longer essay questions and math problems requiring students to show their work.

The debate is unlikely to subside, especially in an election year. Both Al Gore and George W. Bush are touting proposals that tie federal money to test scores. On the other side, California's largest teachers' union is considering a statewide boycott of next year's exam. "When parents start to realize their [child's] going to take a test and may not get a high school diploma, more and more people will start raising their voices," predicts Jim Bougas, a middle school history teacher from Cape Cod, Mass., who was suspended twice for boycotting the state exam. Back in Boston, the protesting students are amplifying their rebel yell. Their summer plans include gathering signatures on petitions, lobbying state politicians and taking a few more treks up the Freedom Trail. Maybe by that time, Cellucci will have loosened up his schedule--and brushed up on his 13th century Chinese history.

--With reporting by Ann Blackman/Washington, Dan Cray/Los Angeles, Mitch Frank/New York and Maggie Sieger/Chicago

With reporting by Ann Blackman/Washington, Dan Cray/Los Angeles, Mitch Frank/New York and Maggie Sieger/Chicago