Search Results for: node/virginia Schools

Graduation Test Update: States That Recently Eliminated or Scaled Back High School Exit Exams (Updated October 2025) The number of states requiring high school graduation exams in language arts and math has declined rapidly over the past few years. Only six states have mandatory graduation tests in place for the high school class of 2026, […]

Status: Archived Subject: K-12 Testing The Oregon Board of Education has voted to postpone implementation of its social studies tests for three years. According to the state’s largest newspaper, The Oregonian, this decision was a response to widespread protests by social studies teachers. These included a constant barrage of newspaper op-ed articles, letters to the […]

Status: Archived Subject: K-12 Testing The major firms in the U.S. K-12 testing industry are all for-profit companies. But the financial structure of the primary sponsors of college and graduate school admissions tests is superficially different. Companies such as the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the College Entrance Examination Board (College Board), and ACT (formerly American […]

Status: Archived Subject: K-12 Testing Organizations American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Association for Women in Science California Teachers Association Center for Women Policy Studies Council for Exceptional Children Council of the Great City Schools Gallaudet University Hispanic Education Coalition International Reading Association Mexican American Legal Defense and […]

Status: Archived Subject: University Testing It’s been a banner year for the test-optional admissions movement. More than 30 colleges and universities eliminated entrance exam requirements for all or many applicants. That’s far and away an all-time annual high. Among new “converts”: major private universities, such as George Washington; many selective liberal arts colleges; and a […]

Status: Archived Subject: K-12 Testing FairTest Examiner, July 2009 A Texas assessment reform bill heads to the governor after a compromise on grade promotion tests, and the Pennsylvania’s Governor Rendell retreats as the state’s exit exam struggle continues to roil. California’s budget crisis prompts a vote to halt the state exit exam. Meanwhile, Alabama cut […]

Status: Archived Subject: University Testing In an effort to attract top-ranking students to public university systems, an increasing number of states base scholarship awards on college admissions test scores. When states employ a test-score cut-off in determining financial aid awards – a violation of the test-makers’ guidelines for proper score use – disproportionately few African […]

Status: Archived Subject: University Testing Beginning with its Saturday, March 12, 2005 administration, students are facing a highly touted “new” SAT. The revised exam was rushed into use by its owner, the College Board, to preserve market share in the face of a threat that its biggest customer would stop requiring the exam. The changes […]

MAY 2, 2006 Good morning. I am Robert Schaeffer, Public Education Director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing based in Cambridge Massachusetts. FairTest, as the organization is popularly known, was founded in 1985 by leaders of major civil rights, education reform and student activist groups to serve as a non-profit monitor of […]

Status: Archived Subject: K-12 Testing Zachary VanDerwerker, son of leading Virginia test reformer Mickey VanDerwerker, conducted his own test of his school’s new computerized essay-scoring system, developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS). In response to a prompt, he wrote one and a quarter pages, eight paragraphs. The computer awarded him a four, the highest score, […]