Testing, High-Stakes

Generally, high-stakes tests are any measures whereby the results have important consequences for test takers and/or their schools. The prevalence of [Page 820]high-stakes tests has greatly increased since they were first used on a large scale during World War I to assign incoming soldiers to their duties. During the 1950s, colleges began widely using the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as an admissions test, a trend that currently leads almost all college-bound students to take it or other standardized measures, such as the American College Testing (ACT) examination. In addition, many states have recently developed high school exit examinations that prospective graduates must pass in order to receive their diplomas. Tests of this type are given in 22 states, in which 65% of the nation's student populations reside.

Legal challenges have not slowed the diffusion of high-stakes tests. As such, case law has shaped the way that high school exit examinations in particular are administered. The seminal case on the topic is Debra P. v. Turlington (1984), in which students in Florida brought a federal class action suit against the state for withholding diplomas from students who failed the test. On review, the Eleventh Circuit, following several rounds of litigation, held that tests can be used only if state officials can conclusively prove that they cover only material that was taught in the classrooms, that they are valid, and that students had received sufficient notice that they would have to take such examinations. Moreover, in acknowledging the higher failure rates of minorities than of nonminori-ties, the court instructed that the tests can be used only if officials can prove that their racially discriminatory impact was not due to the remnants of past segregation. As to notice, the court was of the opinion that students had to be given ample time to prepare themselves for the examinations.

In later cases, students with disabilities and those who were educated under unconstitutional tracking systems successfully challenged exit examination requirements as a prerequisite for receiving diplomas. A trilogy of cases from Texas demonstrates the nature of ongoing controversy with regard to graduation tests. On one hand, a federal and state court, respectively, agreed that tests could be used (Williams v. Austin Independent School District, 1992; Edgewood Independent School District v. Paiz, 1993). However, another federal trial court disagreed insofar as it allowed students who passed all of their required courses but failed the state's competency test to participate in graduation ceremonies, on the basis that school officials could not impose new criteria on them without providing adequate notice and demonstrating that the examinations were sufficiently linked to the curriculum (Crump v. Gilmer Independent School District, 1992). At the same time, though, while the court granted the students' request for a preliminary injunction that enabled them to participate in the ceremony, it refused to direct educators to grant them their diplomas.

Successful litigation in opposition to high-stakes tests has pursued claims based on substantive and procedural due process violations. This has forced states and school officials to make adjustments in the implementation or designs of tests, but it has not foreclosed the legality of tests in their entirety. Courts have been willing to review state educational policies using a rational basis test that gives states wide discretion in its actions. Thus, states can proceed with policies that emphasize high-stakes tests as long as they satisfy students' procedural and substantive due process rights. Further, insofar as the Supreme Court refused to recognize education as a fundamental right in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973), thereby meaning that it is unlikely to apply strict judicial scrutiny in challenges to testing, states and school systems will probably be able to continue to use high-stakes testing.

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