Courting Trouble: Litigation, High-Stakes Testing, and Education Policy

High-stakes testing policies did not emerge in an education policy vacuum. Part I of this Article includes a brief description of the major high-stakes tests and their policy rationales. Part II surveys recent litigation challenging one distinct genre of high-stakes testing-high school exit exams. Two cases illustrate courts\u27 current posture toward legal challenges of exit exams. Part III reviews evidence of courts\u27 increased sensitivity to the policy consequences attributable to court decisions that interfere with the implementation of exit exams. Part IV concludes and notes the important normative questions raised by judges\u27 concerns with policy consequences flowing from their decisions