Reading scores sagged in 1994, then rebounded in 1998.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics

True or false:
Standardized tests improve education

The boom in standardized tests reflects widespread concern about the quality of American education. In international comparisons, the United States ranks abysmally in math. In domestic comparisons, poor and minority students rank well behind whites in virtually every state, although the racial disparity has diminished over time.

There are some improvements, but they're slow and spotty. For example, on the standardized National Assessment of Educational Progress (the NAEP is sometimes called the "national report card on education"), math "performance improved steadily at all grade levels between 1990 and 1996," according to the federal "Condition of Education" report.

Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS):

Average score relative to U.S.	Country
Significantly higher	Australia Austria Canada Denmark France Germany Hungary Iceland	International average Netherlands New Zealand Norway Slovenia Sweden Switzerland
Not significantly different	Czech Republic Italy	Lithuania Russian Federation
Significantly lower	Cyprus	South Africa

Wow! In the 12th grade math test, the United States bested Cyprus and South Africa -- but not Slovenia, New Zealand and Iceland.
National Center for Education Statistics

However, reading results are mixed. Average scores for 9- and 13-year olds "improved slightly between 1971 and 1980 and showed little or no change between 1980 and 1996. Scores for 17-year-olds have remained relatively consistent since 1971," according to NAEP.

The notion that American students rank alongside those of the Czech Republic in math caused politicians, educators -- even The Why Files -- to adopt "standard" educational goals designed to ensure that all students are being taught the right stuff.

Once the curriculum is standardized, then standardized tests are an obvious enforcement mechanism -- a way to assure taxpayers and politicians that their money is not being squandered.

Below: The National Assessment of Educational Progress show a reduction in racial disparities in reading over the past 30 years, but blacks and Hispanics still lag.
Courtesy: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics

True or false: Standardized tests can evaluate schools and students
On their face, standardized tests make sense. Just as final exams tell us whether a student understands solid geometry, graduation tests tell us if a student has grasped enough high school work to justify a diploma. And just as a mid-term exam would show whether students have absorbed the first principles of Marketing 512: Media Manipulation, so the Iowa Test of Basic Skills would show whether third graders can distinguish the Atlantic Ocean from the Erie Canal. Politicians seem to love the tests: In pursuit of "accountability" and "high standards," they have required an increasing number of tests at many stages of K-12 education.

Standardized tests -- whether used for student and school evaluation, graduation, college entry and other purposes -- have been on a roll for 20 years, and at this point, at least 26 states have some form of high-stakes test for high-school graduation, says David Gilman, who studies student evaluation at Indiana State University.

That, he says, is a disaster. Standardized tests are expensive, and teaching to them wastes time. Many slow-performing students, he says, spend essentially all their time preparing for tests. And then there's the attitude problem: Tests, he says, are promoted by those who think "school is the problem. They stick us with an accountability program, standardized tests, mandated assessments." Tests, he concludes, have "reduced education to numbers rather than learning."

True or False: Have tests helped education in Texas?