for further information:
Dr. Monty Neill (857) 350-8207
Bob Schaeffer (941) 395-6773
for immediate release, Sunday, May 20, 2001
A major newspaper expose demonstrating the U.S. school testing industry’s inability to competently design and administer the current level of required state exams should persuade Congress to drop a plan to greatly increase mandated testing now being debated as part of an “education reform” bill, according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest).
“Doubling or tripling the required number of tests in many states — as President Bush proposes — would result in many more defective exams and great damage to educational quality as schools are forced to teach to inadequate exams” explained FairTest Executive Director Monty Neill. “Congress should ‘just say no’ to this ill-considered, dangerous scheme.”
President Bush’s proposal, scheduled for debate in both the Senate and House this week, would mandate every state to test every public school student in grades three through eight in both reading and math every year. Test results would then be used to punish schools that fail to increase scores.
In an article titled “Right Answer, Wrong Score: Test Flaws Take Toll,” the Sunday New York Times reported that exam manufacturers “cannot guarantee the kind of error-free, high-speed testing that parent, educators and politicians seem to take for granted.” Several industry leaders told Times reporters that the Bush Administration proposal would strain companies beyond their capacity. For example, Educational Testing Service President Kurt Landgraf said, “I don’t know how anyone can say that we can do this now.”
The New York Times article also noted that making educational decisions based on a single test violates the standards of the measurement profession itself and has been criticized by a National Academy of Science blue ribbon panel. A major reasons for this position is that tests have limited accuracy. Studies show that one-third of the variance in test score gains in North Carolina result from “luck of the draw,” according to FairTest, while a half million students in Virginia have been miscategorized due to their state test’s imprecision.
“Voting for the Bush testing scheme would be the height of irresponsibility for any Member of Congress reading this information,” concluded FairTest Public Education Director Bob Schaeffer. “It would mean turning the future of our schools over to an industry that has poorer quality control than pet food manufacturers, who at least have to meet federal content standards.”