How Secure Are High-Stakes Tests? In Most States, Not Very.

These days, there’s a lot riding on how well students do on state-administered achievement tests. In recent years, the federal government and states have pushed the testing stakes higher, tying teacher evaluations, pay, jobs, and millions of dollars of state and federal aid to student performance as measured by standardized tests. But as the stakes rise, cheating becomes a bigger threat, especially since, according to a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) article, most states do not take basic measures to ensure test integrity.

The AJC surveyed all 50 states about their test security measures.  The results are not encouraging.  Of the 46 states that responded to its survey, the AJC found:

• 24 perform no statistical analysis to look for improbable test score improvements, 
• 21 do not look for high numbers or suspicious patterns of changes from wrong to right answers, and
• 34 do not screen for similar answers that might show if students copied from one another or a teacher filled in the answers on multiple tests.

Connecticut does all of these things, according to the AJC survey. The state also uses independent test monitors and unannounced visits to testing locations, and Connecticut law makes tampering with the state test results grounds for mandatory revocation of an educator’s certificate.  Other states with good test security include Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and South Carolina.