Peter Relic, the distinguished past president of the National Association of Independent Schools, points out in The Trouble with the Standards Movement that California and Indiana are linking teacher and institutional accreditation to state required testing. Several states now require that every teacher in a public or private school be certified. I believe that this trend will accelerate and become the norm within five years.
Some states are considering requiring testing of ALL students in primary and secondary grades. How will this effect private schools? The push for testing has started at the federal level. The public education industry is just too well entrenched and too zealously protective of its interests to not take a crack at controlling all aspects of education including the private sector. The public cry for results from public school educators has left those folks scrambling to defend their turf. If they can somehow derail the success of private schools which they tend to view as elitist anyway, then they can continue to attempt to fool the public for a few more years. As part of the reauthorisation process of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act the Clinton administration has issued a paper called Accountability For Results In Education. This spells out the federal proposals in detail. The irony is that the very points enunciated in this paper makes are the same principles and ideals which private schools have upheld and embraced for decades, if not longer. The paper calls for discipline, sound educational practices, and accountability, including a novel practice of issuing regular report cards. Apparently there are 14 states which do not require report cards. This all means that you and I cannot be complacent about one more incursion into the independence which is at the heart of private education. Private schools already suffer from a fair amount of regulation from every level of government.
The Bottom Line Is Accountability. It appear to be difficult to make public school systems accountable. On the other hand, private schools are accountable to their clients - the parents who pay the school fees which keep private institutions open for business. So why do we need mandatory testing at the state level to enforce accountability in private schools? The truthful answer is that we do not need it.