LETTER: “What standardized test scores don't show,” by Keith Lehman

Source: Fargo Forum - July 22, 2025

Opinion by Keith Lehman

A common criticism of public education are the results of standardized test scores and the level of proficiency among student populations that accompany them. This is sometimes used to argue that public schools are failing students and/or that additional funding is not a wise use of resources. Standardized test scores don’t tell the whole story, though.

These tests are typically scored in two different ways. The first is a norm-referenced scoring system, which compares an individual child to his or her peers in the school, state and nation. This sort of test allows parents to share results along the lines of, “my child is in the 67th percentile in reading, 54th percentile in writing, and 46th percentile in math.”

The second scoring method is criterion-based scoring, where specific benchmarks for grade levels are pre-set, and students either meet those criteria or don’t, resulting in either being labeled as proficiency or not proficient. This is the type of assessment score that is used to criticize public schools’ performance - “only x% of students are proficient in reading!”

In public education, we gain access to teaching students at age 5 at the earliest. However, any parent or educator can tell you that learning should start prior to kindergarten; basic counting, alphabet recognition, identification of shapes and colors, and other baseline academic skills should be known prior to entering school. But what happens when students don’t have these skills or the home support to develop them? What happens when a student has no academic exposure prior to starting kindergarten?

Standardized test scoring can be complicated, so for simplicity, let’s say that a test is scored from 0 to 100, with a minimum score of 70 needed to be labeled as proficient. The student who had no academic exposure prior to grade school may start the year scoring a 12 out of 100. After months of rigorous academic intervention and patience from teachers and other academic staff, the March test day has arrived. When the test is done, the student finds that they scored a 55 out of 100.

Is this worth celebrating? Does this show academic progress? Is this student one of many examples of the exciting growth that can happen over a school year? The answer to all of these is yes. A 358% increase in scoring is magnificent. However, despite this growth, the student is labeled as not proficient, and thus, casts a negative count towards the proficiency rate of their school.

Public schools are a reflection of the societies they educate. They are not immune to the behavioral, mental health, financial, and socioeconomic challenges that happen outside of the classroom walls. Even so, school staff welcome all students, regardless of the challenges they bring with them, doing all they can to help students grow, even if it doesn’t result in the label of “proficient.” It is worth considering other metrics and measures to determine if public schools are effective in serving their purpose.