The best of both worlds 

In the past decade, a powerful antitesting coalition made up of parents, educators, and activists has arisen in and around public schools. Standardized testing, they’ve argued, is an inherently limited technology that cannot adequately measure student learning, particularly in the case of traditionally underserved minorities. Worse, they contend, test-based accountability has dramatically reduced the mission of schools, narrowing the curriculum and constraining classroom instruction. Testing, they maintain, is a dark cloud hanging over the U.S. education system.  

Yet testing has defenders. And they tell a different story. School-level results from standardized tests, they argue, reveal achievement disparities across lines of race, gender, and income, protecting the interests of historically marginalized groups. Data from standardized tests have spurred schools and districts to intensify their focus on student achievement, fostered coordination among state and district offices, and provided objective information that enables the public to hold schools accountable. Achievement data, they argue, function as a form of sunlight. 

Insofar as these sides are diametrically opposed to each other, it’s impossible to have a foot in each camp. One must choose either to support or to reject data — opting in or opting out — despite the fact that each side makes valid points.