Author: FairTest

MYTH 1: If some schools administer performance assessments instead of Regents exams, all schools will want to use the same “escape hatch.” TRUTH: Rather than being an “escape hatch,” performance assessment tasks, as used by the New York Performance Standards Consortium, are more challenging than Regents exams. In fact, tasks such as the literary essay, […]

What are ‘high stakes’ tests? These are tests mandated by law whose scores are used as the basis for distributing rewards and punish-ments to students, teachers, schools, and school administrators. What happens to students who fail tests? Students cannot be legally denied promotion based solely on STAR/ SAT9 (or its replacement). Standardized test scores, however, […]

The Virginia Board of Education says that: The SOL program will improve public education by holding everyone to high standards through high-stakes testing. TRUTH: It is a common, but untrue, assumption that high-stakes testing produces improved learning and student achievement. Test scores rise, in large part, because of more focus on expected test content and […]

The Learning Record is an open system of literacy and mathematics assessment, K-12, maintained and monitored by the classroom teacher to provide evidence that students are moving toward agreed upon goals and standards. Parents (and/or other adult mentors) and students themselves contribute evidence for the Record. Teachers summarize and record this information to inform their […]

* FairTest Examiner: SAT Scoring “Debacle” Undermines Test-Maker Credibility * FairTest Testimony on SAT Scoring Error * Test-Maker’s Review Of SAT Scoring Error Overdue * FairTest Reaction to the College Board Report on the SAT Error. * Twenty Unanswered Questions about the SAT Scoring Error Nine and a half months after scores on more than […]

Thursday, August 02, 2007 originally published on http://www.admissionsadvice.com/ For two decades FairTest, a small non-profit organization, has been the leading critic of standardized testing, including college admissions exams. The SAT and ACT, according to FairTest, are not only poor predictors of future academic achievement, but also limit college accessibility for minority and low-income students. FairTest […]

The Learning Record is a powerful assessment process developed first in England for literacy (reading, writing, speaking, listening) for use with low-income children, many of whom had first languages other than English. For years, U.S. work on the LR was led by the Center for Language in Learning, but sadly it has closed its doors. […]

January 2007Executive Summary Download a print formated PDF of this executive summary. Download a print formated PDF of the complete report. Public education in the U.S. faces a critical choice. We can continue to follow the path of punishment and privatization promoted by business and political interests and enshrined in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) […]

National Forum on Assessment Assessment of student learning is undergoing profound change at the same time reforms are taking place in learning goals and content standards, curriculum, instruction, the education of teachers, and the relationships among parents, communities, schools, government, and business. These Principles provide a vision of how to transform assessment systems and practices […]

American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Psychology in Education and Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory. (1993). Learner-Centered Principles for School Reform. Washington, DC: APA (Office of Psychology in Education, Education Directorate, APA, 750 First St., NE, Washington, DC 20002). Includes principles for developing and using student-centered performance assessments that can enhance the learning process. Calls […]