Even though she runs a private school, Louise Robinson spends an inordinate amount of time these days worrying about how her students would fare on the Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. It’s not because Millwood, a K-8th grade school in suburban Richmond, is under the gun for the statewide accountability test. Millwood’s 303 pupils are exempt from it. What worries Robinson is that the tests will usurp the school’s ability to set its own curriculum. "One of the duties of independent education, as the name implies, is the independence it affords schools like ours to create and implement a curriculum without the interruption of the state," says Robinson.Even though she runs a private school, Louise Robinson spends an inordinate amount of time these days worrying about how her students would fare on the Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. It’s not because Millwood, a K-8th grade school in suburban Richmond, is under the gun for the statewide accountability test. Millwood’s 303 pupils are exempt from it. What worries Robinson is the tests will usurp the schools’ ability to set their own curriculum. "One of the duties of independent education, as the name implies, is the independence it affords schools like ours to create and implement a curriculum without the interruption of the state," says Robinson.

Robinson is not alone. Many leaders of Virginia’s private schools are becoming more and more unsettled by the growing national push by politicians to bring accountability to education and improve public schools. Chief among their concerns is a fear that SOLs and similar tests in other states eventually will be forced upon them either by dictate or indirect pressure. The tests not only threaten the integrity and independence of private schools, but may effect quality as well. A common complaint about proficiency testing is that teachers are forced to teach the test, not necessarily broaden the minds of their students.

While there is no legislative push to expand the SOL tests to Virginia’s parochial and independent schools, the tests already have had an unwitting impact on private schools. In 1998, public schools began administering the exams each spring in grades 3, 5, 8, and in high school. Students must pass at least six of 12 high school exams to graduate, and schools need to achieve a 70 percent passing rate by 2007 to keep their accreditation. Some private school educators are already incorporating aspects of the SOL requirements into their teaching plans and some schools have administered the exams to see whether their students meet or exceed the state standards.

Pressure is also coming from parents worried about how their private-school children will do on SOL tests if they switch to public schools, says Robinson, headmaster and founder of Millwood. "We have to ensure that our curriculum will integrate whatever our students want to do afterwards."

Yet, by doing so, private schools risk ceding control over their curricula and diminishing the quality that set them apart from public schools and attracted students in the first place. John Katzman, president of the Princeton Review, a leading college prep firm, says private schools would have to spend more time "pounding away" at standardized material to the point at which they will have "sucked all the life out of school," he says. "They will not be independent schools if they take those tests because they will be in the same boat as everyone else."

Even so, Katzman’s test-preparation firm, perhaps best known for its SAT preparation courses, has tailored its product line to meet the SOL challenge. It offers online programs to Virginia school districts to help students get ready for the exams. Still, he regards the tests as flawed and more rooted in scoring political points and ideology rather than improving schools. "This isn’t about accountability and education. At this point it’s about `Learning what I say you will learn.’ Every kid in Virginia will learn the same things."

Though Virginia only began SOL testing three years ago, the current frenzy over standards and testing in education is rooted in a 1989 meeting of the nation’s governors that then President George Bush hosted in Charlottesville. The focus was on making U.S. schools competitive with the rest of the world. The Charlottesville meeting led to the creation of Bush’s national education goals, which eventually became Goals 2000 in the Clinton administration. About three-quarters of the states have implemented some form of mandated testing. Some, like New York, have had regents tests for years that high school students must pass to graduate. A few states, like Ohio, already require all schools — public or private — to administer state tests to maintain their accreditation.

The increased use of proficiency testing has brought with it a rising anxiety among educators. Public school teachers and administrators, under pressure for students to do well on the tests, complain they are forced to teach to the test instead of having the freedom to educate students on a broader variety of topics. How schools score becomes a prestige issue that goes far beyond the original goals of the tests. Teachers whose students score well can win bonuses. Even real estate locations enter the mix. Realtors often tout neighborhoods whose public schools have high scores.

Despite the potential problems standardized tests pose, most private school administrations, especially among the tonier institutions, continue to downplay the issue and cite their more rigorous standards. Private school officials love to cite the elite universities where their students win admission as evidence of their quality. "What’s done with the state schools does not necessarily apply," says Ellis Glover, headmaster at the Westminster School in Annandale. And at Richmond’s all-girls St. Catherine’s School, marketing manager Carol Billingsley adds, "I don’t think you’re going to find anyone here with that concern."

True enough, say those paying attention to the issue. But they point out that too many private school educators are sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring what could be a major problem in a few years. States could hold certification or accreditation over schools’ heads, some educators warn. New tougher standards for teacher training could also extend to private schools. Private schools curricula also could face changes prompted by textbook publishers, who often cater more to the demands of large states such as Texas or California.

The reluctance of most private school educators to publicly acknowledge the problem with testing has not stopped their advocacy groups from lobbying behind the scenes in Richmond and Washington, D.C. to protect their autonomy. Private school leaders say they will pay close attention to the education policies of President George W. Bush, who has supported vouchers and tougher state and national standards. Early reports that Bush is likely to sacrifice vouchers to pass other parts of his agenda were greeted with optimism. Yet the nomination of Houston Independent School District Superintendent Rod Paige, a staunch supporter of standards and testing, to be education secretary raised a few eyebrows. "We’ll be watching Bush very carefully," says Peter D. Relic, president of the National Association of Independent Schools.

Private-school educators are especially wary of vouchers and other public money intended to help students in underperforming public schools attend private schools. While parochial schools have been most accepting of voucher programs as a means of shoring up their finances, most independent schools think vouchers will lead to government mandates. "If that direct connection of funds comes to schools, that might bring the state oversight and regulation of schools," says Charles Stillwell, headmaster at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond. No NAIS member school has participated in a voucher program. But vouchers are not the only funding tool being proposed. Plans such as one proposed in Virginia to provide parents a $2,500 annual tax credit for children attending private schools could circumvent the schools. Because the proposed tax credit would go to parents, public funding could be funneled to private schools despite the concerns of private-school educators. "Down the line my concern is that you will be giving away your autonomy and independence," Relic says.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Relic and those private-school leaders who agree with him is convincing their colleagues that the threat to independent schools is a real one. By the time the skeptics are converted, they believe, it may be too late, and independent schools could very well lose their most treasured asset.