Accessing the Superintendency: The Unwritten Rules Book

As a former charter school teacher of mostly Latino students for the past four years, I was eager to hear Valenzuela and other researchers explicate the troubles represented by standardized test-based accountability. Their work casts serious doubts on the validity of the accountability movement.

An example from the book may prove instructive: In her book ELLs are made a major source of inquiry, insofar as they demonstrate how high-stakes tests serve to marginalize and discriminate against them by refusing to provide them with necessary services to access the curriculum. Increasing numbers of states have adopted and English-only law that all but makes impossible effective bilingual instruction. Students consequently must adapt in just a year to an English-only curriculum. With twisted logic, policy makers have used this law to conclude that ELLs should also be subject to English-only assessments, despite the fact that they do not measure a student's subject-matter knowledge or aptitude (to the extent any test does); instead, it becomes a language test -- something it was never intended to do. Schools use these tests to retain ELLs, often causing them to drop out. In this manner, a standardized tests becomes emblematic of institutionalized racism, as it discriminates against linguistic minorities with tragic results.

This is just one of many examples discussed in Leaving Children Behind that empirically demonstrates how standardized testing and accountability movements have ruinous effects on the minoritized populations they ostensibly intend to serve. For teachers of such populations, it should be required reading.