No Hispanic Student Left Behind: The Consequences of "High Stakes" Testing

In 2001 the No Child Left Behind Act was legislated by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The act was intended to reform U.S. public education and improve student achievement through, among other mechanisms, demanding strict accountability for results of student achievement. It is crucial for school social workers to become more aware of the potentially negative consequences that stem from reliance on "high stakes" testing. The authors review the disparate impact of traditional assessment approaches and high-stakes testing on ethnic minority students in general, and more specifically, on Hispanic students. In addition, the authors discuss the general influence of culture and ethnicity on standardized test results and review various approaches to mitigating such testing effects and discuss their relative merits and drawbacks. The authors ask whether certain Hispanic cultural or ethnic norms influence testing behaviors, thereby often negating results. Implications for social work practice are discussed.