Following the whirlwind standards movement of the 1980s, the beginning of the 1990s ushered in an overwhelming interest in and use of testing to document students' progress. In 1991, the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) issued its second position paper calling for a moratorium on standardized testing in the early years of schooling (the first one on that topic was published in 1976) (ACEI/Perrone, 1991). Citing the rising use of tests to label children, place children in special programs, and retain underachieving children in a grade level, ACEI denounced the use of these tests in the early grades and questioned their use in later grades as well. It was the hope that more discussions would ensue concerning the negative effects of standardized testing on children's learning and their motivation to learn. The Association leadership further hoped that schools would more actively pursue assessment alternatives that honored children's individuality and developmental growth. While discussion has certainly increased in both content and intensity and alternatives have been explored, we have not seen a significant change in the use (and, in many cases, the misuse) of testing. With the advent of the No Child Left Behind law, enacted in 2002, quality developmentally appropriate teaching and learning practices have taken a backseat to the more focused attention on low-level skills that can be assessed easily on a standardized multiple-choice test. Standardized tests are now used to hold up children and schools for comparison; the scores are used to discriminate rather than diagnose, punish rather than reward. Equally disturbing is the misuse of these tests--and these tests alone--to unjustly hold teachers and schools accountable and then punish those who have not met adequate yearly progress, as deemed by people other than those working with children on a daily basis (e.g., politicians).
