Here's a little quiz: If Miss Smith's fourth grade class scores higher on a standardized test than Mr. Kelly's fourth grade class, A) Miss Smith is a better educator; B) Miss Smith's students are smarter; or C) the test is flawed.

Answer?

D) It all depends on whom you talk to!

There could be many reasons for the discrepancies (Miss Smith may "teach to the test," Mr. Kelly may be new and lack experience in the classroom, or his students may not be English proficient or not have eaten breakfast the morning of the test), yet these days, it seems everyone is jumping on the standardized testing bandwagon as a way of measuring not only what kids are learning, but the merits of who's teaching them.

Student and Teacher Accountability

It's called student and teacher "accountability" and it's been the buzzword on Capitol Hill since the 1983 report A Nation at Risk, an educational reform document condemning the nation's education system as "a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people."

Since then, the backlash from parents and politicians demanding dramatic change has been building like dirty cafeteria trays right after the lunch bell. They aim to raise academic standards and make teachers and students accountable through standardized testing. Although few would argue that the nation's education system is without flaws—especially in urban districts—many educators and reformers question the use of so-called "high-stakes" testing as the magic pill that will improve the way American kids learn.

The Bonus System: Tying Funding to Test Scores

Currently, more than twenty states, including California, give bonuses to school districts that improve test scores from the previous year. This trend is growing, and the stakes keep rising. Many politicians now propose that schools whose scores go down be fined, insisting that we should not "reward failure."

"Giving bonuses to schools that improve their tests scores is obscene," says Mary Hagen, Director of Education at Encore L

Yet proponents counter that like a well-run business, education can thrive with a healthy dose of competition and the promise of a financial reward. And it seems in some states their plan is working. In California, for instance, the state department of education announced impressive gains this year for reading and math on the Stanford 9, the state exam given to grades two through eleven.

How the Tests Are Constructed—and the Consequences

They go by many names—the Stanford Achievement Tests, Metropolitan Achievement Tests, the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, Iowa Tests of Educational Development, and Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. All are commercially published tests to mark the progress of kids in K through 12th grades. The demand for them has become so great that the test-making market—topping more than $200 million a year—now outpaces that of textbooks.