Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 October 2025
Horace Mann can be credited with the beginning of accountability and high-stakes testing in K-12 education in the 1800s. This was also the beginning of test fraud. Terman later developed the National Intelligence tests for K-12, followed by the Stanford Achievement Tests and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Results of such tests have been used, unwisely, to drive school reform efforts. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Moynihan and Coleman reports in the 1960s, and A Nation at Risk in the 1980s continued to drive educational reform efforts such as No Child Left Behind, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and Race to the Top today. Using test scores to make decisions about hiring and firing of teachers and administrators is ill advised. Reform efforts over the past 60 years have not reduced the achievement gap. K-12 tests reveal societal, not educational shortcomings.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.