Why Do Scores Change?

Since 1990, educational accountability systems have been widely implemented in the United States. The focus on accountability recently gained new emphasis with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) signed into law by President Bush on January 8, 2002. The law, usually called the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), put in place sweeping requirements for increased accountability in the public schools of the United States. A central feature of the new law is the requirement for annual assessments of students in reading and mathematics.

Because of the new federal requirements as well as state testing programs that were already in place in many states, the academic performance of students in the United States is perhaps more widely measured now than at any previous time in history. With more frequent measurement, parents and teachers have access to more information about their students’ performance than at any previous time. With the increased availability of information, parents and teachers are better informed than in the past. Ironically, they may also find themselves having more questions about the results than at any time in the past…