Tested Curriculum

The tested curriculum consists of that portion of the curriculum over which a student is tested via national norm-referenced achievement tests, state criteria-referenced tests, and teacher-made tests. Teachers may emphasize the tested curriculum to the detriment of the rest of the curriculum, especially because No Child Left Behind, the federal education act of 2002, requires high-stakes testing of all students Grades 3 to 10. These tests are used to rate the school as “acceptable” or “in need of improvement.” Test scores are viewed by many parents, school board members, and politicians as the true assessment of a school's success.

The tested curriculum then becomes the measure of the school's success. Teachers are often encouraged to teach to the goals and objectives of the test rather than to the goals and objectives of the curriculum standards. This becomes the tested curriculum and the focus of the teacher's lessons.

As a result of using the tested curriculum, the elementary school's curriculum may narrow. If only reading and math are tested at third grade, science and social studies may receive only leftover time. The formal curriculum in most school districts consists of much more than a teacher can teach in a year, so some of the curriculum is left behind. On the other hand, the tested curriculum keeps students from being taught teachers' favorite units year after year. Units on dinosaurs, apples, and bats to name a few may be taught repeatedly in the elementary grades without curriculum standards and the tested curriculum to guide teachers.

Schools and teachers may look at the standards for their curriculum area that they are assigned to teach and compare that with the standards that are assessed in the current assessment plan. The standards that are assessed become the standards that are taught and learned, resulting in the tested curriculum. In upper grades where history, art, and music have specific time periods, the lack of tested curriculum allows the teacher to reflect on the formal curriculum and choose what the teacher believes are the most important topics to focus on.

The purpose of the tests and the tested curriculum is for school improvement, but critics contend that the emphasis has turned into one of devising new tests and turning instructional time into testing time. This becomes apparent in observing the taught curriculum before the test administration. In some classrooms, teachers “drill and kill” students on test items from release tests, and test item format. In other buildings, there may be a tightly controlled tested curriculum taught and assessed via networked computers. At this point, the taught curriculum becomes solely the tested curriculum.

As the media tout schools with high test scores, “A-plus schools,” they remark on the focused curriculum in the schools that parallels the tested curriculum. Schools are praised for focusing on core subjects or tested subjects and tested curriculum. To some degree, this is laudable because the standards the tested curriculum is based on reflect key content, issues, and abilities put forth in the curriculum standards. The tested curriculum today includes more than low level rote recall. The current educational reform model claims high standards and assessment that measures high, complex student abilities.

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