Author: FairTest

Deseret News (Salt Lake City) — October 28, 2003by Doug Robinson Today’s column: Trying to understand the federal government’s No Child Left Behind law. Or, as educators fondly call it, No Child Left Untested. Or, No Teacher Left Standing. Or, No Child Left. Or, No Child’s Behind Left. I hope you picked up the sarcasm. […]

For further information: Dr. Monty Neill (857) 350-8207 or Bob Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 For immediate release Friday, September 3, 2004 President Bush’s campaign proposal to require high school students to take “a rigorous exam before graduation” will leave more children behind and dumb down the quality of education in many public schools, according to the […]

Education Week, January 18, 2006By Andrew Trotter and Michelle R. Davis Washington A coalition of school, civil rights, and child-advocacy groups handed a list of 14 recommendations for changing the federal No Child Left Behind Act to congressional staff members at the U.S. Capitol last week, just a day after President Bush vigorously defended the […]

The following excerpt is from the opening chapter of STANDARDIZED MINDS: THE HIGH PRICE OF AMERICA’S TESTING CULTURE AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO CHANGE IT by Peter Sacks. (Perseus Books, Cambridge, Mass., February 2000). Most Americans take standardized mental tests as a rite of passage from the day they enter kindergarten. Gatekeepers of America’s […]

The following excerpt is from the opening chapter of STANDARDIZED MINDS: THE HIGH PRICE OF AMERICA’S TESTING CULTURE AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO CHANGE IT by Peter Sacks. (Perseus Books, Cambridge, Mass., February 2000). Most Americans take standardized mental tests as a rite of passage from the day they enter kindergarten. Gatekeepers of America’s […]

for further information:Monty Neill (857) 350-8207Bob Schaeffer (941) 395-6773 for immediate release January 7, 2002 The legislation signed by President Bush should more accurately be labeled “Leave No Child Untested” or “Leave Many Children Behind.” This misguided federal mandate will most likely undermine, not improve, local school quality and student learning. States will be forced […]

Revisions are needed to the ESEA legislation now in Conference Committee in order to help strengthen the effort to improve schools’ capacity to educate all children well by avoiding the dangers of too much testing, unrealistic adequate yearly progress mandates, and unfeasible “corrections” and sanctions. FairTest recommends that the Conference Committee adopt the following changes: […]

The level “proficient” varies substantially from state to state, depending on the difficulty of the test and how/where the state set its cutoff point for “proficient.” Massachusetts, for example, is quite stringent, so that only 20% of tenth graders are labeled “proficient,” though MA consistently scores among the top states on the National Assessment of […]

The ESEA reauthorization proposals adopted by the U.S. House and Senate and now in Conference Committee contain serious problems that make the plans unfeasible and potentially harmful to efforts to improve public schools. The major problems include: Annual Testing in Grades 3 – 8 Currently, only 15 states test all students in these grades in […]

Essential test-related elements of Bush plan: The proposals will be part of the reauthorization of ESEA (which includes Title I). States required to test all students in grades 3-8 in reading and math to measure students and schools, with reporting on progress for “disadvantaged” as well as all students. Sanctions for failure to improve include […]