This month the Principal’s Office is focusing on Standard 5 of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards, which states, “A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner.” Although testing does not occur until May, the Principal’s Office wanted to give principals resources to help them thoughtfully think through some ethical issues related to testing. Last month we posed the question to the readership, “What ethical issues have you faced with regards to your testing program?” Our Editorial Board and others have contributed several resources this month to help principals sort through the milieu of ethical issues posed by high stakes testing.

Educators are caring people. We believe in supporting our students, and we want them to do the best they can in and out of the classroom. While the caring attitude is commendable, when it comes to standardized testing, that attitude needs to include ethical behavior so that test results provide valid and reliable information. Students, parents, community members, and teachers all have a stake in assessing what students know and are able to do, based on the standards contained in the curriculum.

North Carolina developed a Testing Code of Ethics in 1997 (amended in 2000), and other states have developed similar procedures. In Ohio, the Ohio Administrative Code Rule 3301-7-01 contains the Standards for the Ethical Use of Tests. The rules list specific standards for determining what practices are unethical and/or inappropriate as follows:

(C) In monitoring practices related to preparing students for an assessment, each school district shall use, but not be limited to, the following standards for determining what practices are unethical and/or inappropriate:

• Any preparation activity that undermines the reliability and/or validity of inferences drawn from the assessment results;
• Any practice that results solely in raising scores or performance levels on a specific assessment instrument, without simultaneously increasing the student's achievement level as measured by other tasks and/or instruments designed to assess the same domain;
• Any practice involving the reproduction of actual assessment materials, through any medium, for use in preparing students for an assessment;
• Any preparation activity that includes questions, tasks, graphs, charts, passages, or other materials included in the assessment instrument or in a parallel form of the instrument, and/or materials that are paraphrases or highly similar in content to those in actual use;
• Preparation for the assessment focuses primarily on the assessment instrument or a parallel form of instrument, including its format, rather than on the objectives being assessed;
• Any practice that does not comply with, or has the appearance of not complying with, statutory and/or regulatory provisions related to security of assessment instruments used in school-wide or district-wide programs; and
• Any practice that supports or assists others in conducting unethical or inappropriate preparation activities.

These rules may seem to be couched in “legalese”; however, the rules are intended to ensure that all students will obtain scores that represent what they actually know and are able to do. Administrators should be sure that all those who monitor standardized tests are well versed in the administrative code and care enough to create an environment in which students have been taught test taking and stress management strategies. Encouraging all students to do their best and giving careful attention to test administration not only showcases ethical behavior, but also shows students that you continue to care about them.

back to top