Same tests, same results: Multi-year correlations of ESSA-mandated standardized tests in Texas and Nebraska

Abstract

Statewide assessments in reading and math are required every year under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, at an annual expense of billions of taxpayer dollars. Analyzing 10 years of school-level results from public schools in two states—Nebraska and Texas—we found that year-to-year correlations of schools’ test scores were exceptionally high, with reading and math correlations regularly above r = 0.9, indicating that little new information is derived from annual testing. Furthermore, while schools experiencing the largest demographic changes had significantly lower year-to-year correlations—highlighting the sensitivity of these scores to changes in underlying student demographics—even these lower correlations remained strong. We argue that the frequency of these tests may therefore be reduced, yielding substantial savings of time and money and no loss of useful information.

The Pernicious Predictability of State-Mandated Tests of Academic Achievement in the United States

“…But the influence of the construction-integration model is not only seen on standardized reading assessments. Correlations between results on the reading and mathematics sections of large-scale state standardized tests in the United States are strong, ranging from 0.700-0.900 for most state tests as well as for the international Programme for International Assessment (PISA) suite of tests [18][19][20]. In many cases, standardized state tests of mathematics are nothing more than reading tests that include numbers within the text.…”

“…Students with rich and relevant background knowledge are better equipped to comprehend and retain information from texts as they can effectively integrate new information with their preexisting knowledge [12]. Students with expanded background knowledge across topics and domains generally perform better on state standardized tests of reading and mathematics [16][17][18].…”