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Testing in Chicago Public Schools
Welcome to the proposed CTU wiki on high stakes testing in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The purpose of this wiki is to provide students, families, teachers and the general public with information and resources to combat the excessive regime of standardized testing within CPS.

"**High-stakes testing**" refers to a program of tests where the stakes are high. High stakes include student promotion and school closing. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are expected to make "adequate yearly progress" (or AYP) in increasing standardized test scores, or face sanctions ranging from additional after-school programs up to and including closing the school and firing all of the teachers. In the past, in Illinois, the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) for grades 3 - 8, and the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE) for high school students were the only "high-stakes tests" because they have been used to determine student promotion and school closings.

However, CPS has recently added several other standardized tests to its testing program. The scores on these tests, while not used for student promotion, are folded into calculating the "value-added measure" of a teacher and school. The value-added measure will become part of evaluating teachers. Consequently, the additional tests become high-stakes tests because teachers' livelihoods, as well as the livelihoods of other school staff, depend on test results.

We are not opposed to multiple choice tests, or standardized tests in the abstract. Student test results can be another bit of information in helping teachers craft appropriate learning plans. What we do oppose is the high stakes nature of testing for the following reasons.

What's wrong with CPS's high-stakes testing program?

 * 1) It hurts students.
 * 2) It hurts families.
 * 3) It hurts teachers.
 * 4) It wastes taxpayer's money.
 * 5) It destroys education.
 * 6) It is based on bad science and bad statistics.

An inventory of testing in Chicago Public Schools

Resources on testing, value-added measures and their use in teacher evaluation.