Implementing the mandate: the limitations of benchmark tests

As mandated by No Child Left Behind, schools must find ways to improve test scores. How do benchmark tests fare as a means of informing teachers in order to raise achievement for low-income students? This study of English language arts instruction at a low-income high school investigates the administration’s use of standardized benchmark assessments over 3 years. The socioeconomic conditions for students where teachers were implementing this reform had deleterious effects. The study found that teachers had difficulty getting students up to grade level in an under-resourced program, especially with hundreds of skills represented in the standards. The teachers viewed the benchmark tests as an interruption to their classroom instruction and as an inadequate means of measuring their students’ progress. Ultimately, even the administration found the tests an inadequate assessment for their purposes.