The Price of High-Stakes Educational Testing: Estimating the Aggregate Costs of Florida’s FCAT Exam

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) made schools accountable for student performance through standardized testing. Some claim high-stakes testing is an inexpensive vehicle through which to raise educational standards, however, these studies typically count only the administrative costs of test development, test delivery, and test grading. In contrast, we attempt to calculate the social costs of high-stakes testing as comprehensively as possible, in a single state, Florida. For example, previous research finds lower earnings and lower tax contributions for those who do not graduate from high school, and we know that Florida’s testing regime under NCLB has increased the number of students who do not graduate; combining these findings allows us to estimate how much the mandatory tests have cost students who do not graduate or who are held back at least one grade. We also briefly discuss several other non-quantifiable “costs” of the program, such as the tendency to re-classify more students as “disabled,” to cheat, and to narrow the curriculum. We find the direct and indirect costs of the program are considerable and should prompt further analysis into whether the benefits justify the sizable costs.