Isn't it Past Time to Abandon Standardized Testing?

Since 1996 Virginia (and other states) have used standards based (SOLs) annual standardized tests to measure students, teachers, and schools. 

And if we are honest, nobody has liked them, ever. An internet survey will yield a series of test promotion sites, but even those who most avidly promote them are acknowledging they are something of a necessary evil.

Sadly, students have given up field trips, personal goals, capstone projects, and end-of-year celebrations for standardized testing.

Teachers have given up student tailored instruction and five weeks of instructional time at the end of the school year as the schools buckle down to the computer administered testing. They have grimly endured being measured by 32-45 questions selected by the state and a testing company to represent the several hundred standards they are supposed to teach each year. They are increasingly measured by daily “fidelity” to those standards.

Administrators have learned to cope with rankings and ratings of themselves, their schools, their staffs, and their neighborhoods based on standardized test scores of the children: All so officials at corporations, the federal government, and state capitols can check whether the dollars they spend on educating children is justified. 

Since 2005, Pearson has been the testing company that has managed those tests in Virginia.

On July 28, 2026, the Virginia Department of Education issued a press release announcing a request for proposal for a new testing contract for Virginia that would modernize and deliver a new assessment system. Though labelled as a new assessment plan, it continues to stipulate the contract is to administer the annual SOL tests, and the state legislature has done little, beyond adding required unit testing, to shift away from SOL testing as their primary form of educational assessment and data collection.

For several years under the last Virginia governor, the goal has been to develop tests that more closely align with the National Educational Assessment Program (NAEP). So this new initiative is primarily designed to replace the company (Pearson), and shift the testing to more NAEP aligned companies while keeping more demanding standards and higher cut scores brought in during the previous administration. This is even while we know raising standards and cut scores will not improve student achievement.

For roughly 30 years we have nationally relied on an assessment plan that has totally failed to deliver anything more than bureaucratic convenience and statistically unreliable data. Even the NAEP acknowledges that all this testing has not improved actual learning outcomes, has not provided a richer curriculum, and has not closed the achievement gap for any higher needs group or individual students. 

There are also serious current indicators that creating yet another extended testing initiative will not improve learning. At the federal level, serious reduction in education support including NAEP research, and support funding to states hampers the reliability of federal sources to do test analysis or monitor state performances as formerly demanded in ESSA programs. States similarly are struggling with replacing the supports that formerly were intended to make federal demands potentially reachable. Adding to the problem, artificial intelligence is creating an unpredictable and chaotic landscape for curriculum and instructional practices.

Will it take a serious effort and planning to change? Yes. But now is not the time to rely on the old adage, “we’ve always done it that way.”

“The challenge will be to develop assessment systems that provide meaningful data while supporting, rather than hindering, the ultimate goal of education: preparing students for success in a rapidly changing world.” Rethinking Standardized Testing in American Schools

Now is the time to change the goal of assessment from satisfying political and corporate officials to satisfying the more relevant needs of children, families, and communities.