A peer-reviewed study published early in 2008 in Education Policy Analysis Archives (McSpadden McNeil, Coppola, Radigan, & Vasquez Heileg, 2008) notes that Texas was the model for the high-stakes test accountability of No Child Left Behind and reports that 135,000 teenagers are lost from Texas high schools every year. More than 60 percent of them are African American and Latino. Based on extensive ethnographic analysis, it is clear that the state's high-stakes tests directly increase the severity of the dropout problem. Although NCLB and states claim that the disaggregation of student by race leads to more equity, the report insists that instead it "puts our most vulnerable youth -- the poor, the English language learners, and African-American and Latino children -- at risk of being pushed out of their schools so the school ratings can show 'measurable improvement'" (McSpadden McNeil et al., 2008, "Abstract," para. 1)Did you get that? Young people are literally being pushed out of schools to improve school ratings and show 'measurable improvement.'
This is what education is been reduced to under the 'test and punish' corporate reform model that is destroying public education in America.
One way used to improve test scores is to get rid of "our most vulnerable youth."
This is one of the very bad results of high-stakes testing.
