History of Testing in the United States: PK–12 Education

• Date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716219839682
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Subject Matter: The History of Assessments in American Education

22 ANNALS, AAPSS, 683, May 2019

DOI: 10.1177/0002716219839682

History of

Testing in the

United States:

PK–12

Education

By

MARIS A. VINOVSKIS

839682ANN The Annals of The American AcademyHistory of Testing In The United States

research-article2019

This article provides a brief history of K–12 education

testing in the United States from colonial America to

the present. In early America, students were examined

orally. After the mid-nineteenth century, written tests

replaced oral presentations. In the late nineteenth cen-

tury, graded schools gradually replaced the single-

teacher, one-room schools. In the beginning of the

twentieth century, standardized intelligence tests were

increasingly used to categorize and promote students.

State departments of education have played a larger

role in local school funding and policies in the past

hundred years. Since the 1960s, the federal govern-

ment has expanded its involvement in national educa-

tion while also promoting the role of states. During the

past three decades, the federal government and states

increased the use of high-stakes national testing with

initiatives such as America 2000, Goals 2000, No Child

Left Behind, and Every Student Succeeds.

Keywords: K–12 education; history; national goals;

schools; testing

In the United States as of this writing, the

public and policy-makers are concerned

about the quality of our public schools. Facing

increasing global education and economic com-

petition, we want our schools to be among the

best in the world. As a result, in the last three

decades the federal government and the states

have cooperated in developing national initia-

tives such as America 2000, Goals 2000, No

Child Left Behind, and Every Student

Succeeds. All these programs emphasize

Correspondence: vinovski@umich.edu

Maris A. Vinovskis is Michigan University’s Bentley

Professor of History and a professor at the Public Policy

School. He has published Revitalizing Federal

Education Research (University of Michigan Press

2001), The Birth of Head Start (University of Chicago

Press 2005), and From a Nation at Risk to No Child

Left Behind (Teachers College Press 2009). He worked

in the Bush and Clinton administrations on educational

research and policy issues.

HISTORY OF TESTING IN THE UNITED STATES 23

creating national or state education standards and high-stakes, test-based

accountability. Indeed, many educators believe that our students face more high-

stakes tests than in any other country (Koretz 2017).

How did this emphasis on high-stakes tests develop, and how has it affected

U.S. society? There is an extensive literature on high-stakes testing, but most

scholars lack an understanding of the history of education and of the emergence

of educational testing over the past several hundred years. During debates today

about who should decide how students are educated and evaluated, for example,

appeals are frequently made to the past to justify or oppose current practices

(Vinovskis 2015b). Scholars should understand school testing and the part that

parents, local schools, states, and the federal government have played in its devel-

opment. This article briefly discusses these issues in three time periods: colonial

and nineteenth-century America, 1900 to 1960, and 1960 to 2016.

Colonial and Nineteenth-Century Education

Many Europeans settling colonial America in the early seventeenth century were

Protestants who emphasized that everyone should be able to read the Bible.

Parents were responsible for teaching their own children basic literacy, though

sometimes they employed women who taught rudimentary literacy or hired itin-

erant school teachers. At times, local communities in New England admonished

families whose children could not read. A few grammar schools were created in

the mid-seventeenth century, which offered advanced subjects such as Latin and

Greek for students preparing to enter Harvard University (Moran and Vinovskis

1992).

After the American Revolution, common (primary) schools rapidly expanded;

and even some high schools appeared before the Civil War. The North and the

Midwest rapidly expanded their common schools, while the South struggled to

provide such facilities. Except for the larger communities, public and private

schools usually were one-room “little red schoolhouses.” In the summer months,

unmarried female teachers instructed younger students. During the winter

terms, older children attended schools taught by male teachers (Kaestle 1983;

Zimmerman 2009).

Before the Civil War, free African American children attended segregated

Northern schools or learned to read elsewhere (such as in Sunday schools). In the

South, the great majority of African Americans were slaves whose masters

opposed teaching them reading or writing. Following the Civil War, however,

there was a large increase in African Americans who attended segregated and

underfunded Southern primary schools (Anderson 1988).

Outside the few larger cities, local boys and girls of all ages attended common

schools that taught basic subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. School

committees frequently hired poorly prepared, but less expensive, teachers.

NOTE: I would like to thank Douglas Reed for his helpful comments and Amy Berman and

Michael Feuer for their thoughtful suggestions and excellent editing skills.