New Report: Test, Punish, and Push Out

Posted by on March 01, 2010

‘Intertwined’ policies cause widespread alienation, and worse

A new report from the Advancement Project examines the joint effects of zero-tolerance discipline and high-stakes testing, which in it its view derive from the same ideological roots that have “turned schools into hostile and alienating environments for many of our youth, effectively treating them as drop-outs-in-waiting.” It finds that the end result of “these intertwined punitive policies” is a “school-to-prison pipeline,” in which students throughout the country are “treated as if they are disposable – routinely pushed out of school and toward the juvenile and criminal justice systems.” The report finds that the dramatic rise in school-based arrests coincides with the passage of NCLB: “For example, at the national level, there were almost 250,000 more students suspended out-of-school in 2006-07 than there were just four years earlier, when NCLB was signed into law. During the same timeframe, the number of students expelled across the country increased 15 percent.” While the increased securitization of schools is disaffecting for many at-risk students, “the emphasis placed on test results above all other priorities has an alienating and dehumanizing effect on young people, who resent being viewed and treated as little more than test scores.” These policies have become mutually reinforcing, the report argues, changing the incentive structure for educators, “putting many teachers and administrators in the unenviable position of having to choose between their students’ interests and their own self-interest.”

See the report: http://www.advancementproject.org/digital-library/publications/test-punish-and-push-out-how-zero-tolerance-and-high-stakes-testing-fu