What is the "No Child Left Behind" Law?
What is the “No Child Left Behind” Law? The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a federal law that provides money for extra educational assistance for poor children in return for improvements in their academic progress. NCLB is the most recent version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. States set educational proficiency […]
A FairTest Position Statement on NCLB
Why “No Child Left Behind” Will Fail Our Children A FairTest Position Statement on NCLB “No Child Left Behind,” the name of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, describes a worthy goal for our nation. Tragically, the legislation will exacerbate, not solve, the real problems that cause many children to be left behind. • […]
What's Wrong with Graduation and Promotion Tests
“High-stakes” tests are exams used to make important decisions about students, such as graduation or grade promotion. Decades of research shows the key reasons why test scores should never be the determining factor in making major decisions about students: High-stakes tests do not improve educational outcomes. Extensive research shows that students who are held back […]
Students with Disabilities Report Executive Summary: Preliminary Findings March 2004
Executive Summary: Preliminary Findings March 2004 [ FairTest copied this from another website, failed to capture the title, the file is no longer on the website that is noted at the end of this document.] This Executive Summary of Preliminary Findings incorporates the June 2003 Preliminary Findings. All data are for the 2000-2001 school year. […]
Proposition 227 and Skyrocketing Test Scores: An Urban Legend from California
Proposition 227 and Skyrocketing Test Scores: An Urban Legend from California Stephen Krashen The Journal of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (in press) “An Urban Legend is usually a (good / captivating / titillating / engrossing / incredible / worrying) story that has had a wide audience, is circulated spontaneously, has been told in […]
SELECTED ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON LANGUAGE MINORITY ASSESSMENT
SELECTED ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON LANGUAGE MINORITY ASSESSMENT 1995 Ascher, C. “Testing Bilingual Students: Do We Speak the Same Language?” PTA Today (March 1991, pp. 7-9). Discusses cultural and linguistic bias issues in bilingual testing, options for administering tests to bilingual students, and problems associated with these options. Includes a short description of an alternative, “dynamic […]
Standards Yes, Standardization No
Deborah Meier After thirty years of work as a so-called school-reformer, I’m finding myself at odds with a lot what’s now called reform. The inner-city schools I’ve led have been much touted for their extra-ordinary success with ordinary children. We learned some lessons from these schools. We learned, above all, that even “our way” wouldn’t […]
Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools
Alfie Kohn All of us, as parents and citizens, want to make sure our schools are doing a good job and our children are learning. Unfortunately, the MCAS exams-and the “tougher standards” philosophy that they reflect-not only fail to provide meaningful information but actually interfere with the goal of providing students with a high-quality education. […]
MCAS Alert June 2002
School “Accountability” and the Illusion of Progress: Misusing MCAS To Assess School Quality By Anne Wheelock with the staff of FairTest The School and District Accountability System is the shining star of education reform in that it’s taking schools for what they are, where they’re starting off, and allowing them to show what they can […]
MCAS Alert September 2000
FairTest / CARE (Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education) MCAS: Making the Massachusetts Dropout Crisis Worse “I think a lot of people are going to drop out if they fail this test. If they feel they’re not going to make it to college, why bother trying?” – Lacy Langevin, New Bedford High School, Class of […]