Author: FairTest

The pandemic has accelerated a growing national recognition that standardized tests are both a poor way to measure academic progress and a contributor to social inequality. In higher education, where academic leaders rely on evidence and institutional missions to determine policy, emphasis on the ACT/SAT and GRE to make admissions decisions has been cut back […]

The pandemic has accelerated a growing national recognition that standardized tests are both a poor way to measure academic progress and a contributor to social inequality.  In higher education, where academic leaders rely on evidence and institutional missions to determine policy, emphasis on the ACT/SAT and GRE to make admissions decisions has been cut back […]

Much ado about nothing meaningful!  Nearly every story about spring 2021 standardized testing comes with major cautions about relying on the scores to judge the academic performance of students or schools.  So what was the point of this expensive, time-consuming exercise beyond demonstrating the power of some politicians and interest groups? National Spring 2021 Test […]

It’s time to examine the examiners! Last spring, policymakers from President Biden to many governors and local education officials insisted that annual standardized tests must be administered despite pandemic disruptions of education. So did the inside-the-Beltway, test-and-punish echo chamber. Spring 2021 test scores have recently been reported in many states. Since the results were totally […]

With each passing week, more policymakers are questioning the value of federal and state student testing mandates. Since high-stakes testing regimes have failed to improve academic performance significantly or to narrow historic gaps between demographic groups — proponents’ two major promises — a growing number of voters are pressing their elected representatives for reasons to […]

Standardized test scores from spring 2021 continue to trickle out. So far, however, there’s little evidence that the results are being used to addressed the pandemic’s fully-expected impact, as testing advocates had promised. Rhetoric abounds, but it’s hard to find concrete examples of states, districts or schools targeting resources to the neediest students or making […]

Earlier this year, many readers of this newsletter endorsed the “National Call to Suspend High-Stakes Testing in Spring 2021.” Among the arguments made in that statement: “[T]he results won’t be valid, reliable or useful. We don’t need test scores to know that low-income children in poorly resourced school have fallen even further behind in a […]

“Warning” signs abound as more states release scores from spring 2021, pandemic-influenced annual exams. Just as assessment reformers predicted the new data provide educators with little meaningful information to improve student learning or teaching quality: note the complete lack of surprise in most of this week’s stories from around the nation. ArizonaPandemic Year Test Scores […]

More states are reporting spring 2021 standardized exam scores with totally predictable results. But there’s little concrete evidence that the data is being used to improve educational quality and equity in public school classrooms. So far, the exercise seems little more than another example of “testing for the sake of testing.” National Schools Should Not […]

As classrooms reopen for the fall with debates over face masks and other COVID protection policies, some states remain fixated on standardized test results, not the health and safety of students, educators and school support personnel. To the surprise of no one, exam performance declined last spring in the midst of a pandemic. But, as […]