Testing, Assessment & Accountability
Research
News and Editorials

Accountability: Turning Around Low-Performing Schools
Achieve (2001)
Fulfilling the promise of stnadards requires strategies to turn around schools that are persistently low-performing. States need to step up efforts to identify schools that need help, provide assistance and take bold action when schools continue to fall behind.

Assessing and Addressing the "Testing Backlash"
The Business Roundtable (2001)
Tests provide important information that educators, parents and citizens can use to improve school performance and accountability. However, as states and communities across the country work to raise expectations for student learning, many are challenged by concerns and questions from increasingly vocal parents and teachers. This “backlash” to higher standards and increased accountability is not a surprise. It is a natural reaction to change and to tougher consequences for poor student performance. Increasingly, students who have not mastered important academic standards will be denied diplomas or held back; schools that persistently fail are facing greater scrutiny and demands for improvement.

Standards and Accountability: A Call by the Learning First Alliance for Mid-Course Corrections
Learning First Alliance (2001)
The Learning First Alliance is deeply committed to improving student learning and supports standards-based education as a means of doing so. They do see, however, serious concerns associated with its implementation. This news report addresses the core areas that need urgent attention and offers a set of mid-course corrections that includes topics such as: committing to children requiring extra help, assuring instructors are well prepared, and a concerted state a local commitment to clearly explain content and purposes.

The State of State Standards
Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Michael Petrilli (2000)
What would be your state’s G.P.A. if graded on educational effectiveness? In The State of State Standards, the comparison of school systems among the fifty states is not promising. Using a rating system on a 4.0 scale, similar to student grading scales, Finn and Petrilli find that not only are our school systems not succeeding, but their average rating is a 1.3. While the report is discouraging, the authors do offer hope in the success that certain states have had in particular subjects. When compiled, there is at least one state that excels in each of the major subjects, thus providing a model for improvement for the rest of the country.

Position Statement of the American Educational Research Association Concerning High-Stakes Testing in PreK-12 Education
American Educational Research Association (Educational Researcher, Volume 29, Number 8, November 2000)
Is it fair to base a life altering decisions, such as one’s high school graduation, on test scores alone? Based on the 1999 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, the AERA released this position statement. It serves to communicate their views concerning the implementation of high-stakes achievement testing programs. It acts as a guide and a caution to policy makers and testing professionals when dealing with this situation.

Making Standards Matter 1999
American Federation of Teachers (1999)
There is something to be optimistic about in American schools. This report conducted by the American Federation of Teachers in 1999 shows an increase in the implementation and effectiveness of state academic standards. The study found that over the past five years, American schools have had success with incentive-based standards programs and have actually decreased social promotion. While the report offers hope that our school systems are improving, it does present areas of concern such as the slow development of quality standards for English and Social Studies. Recommendations for addressing these areas of concern are offered as well.

Testing, Teaching and Learning: A Guide for States
Richard Elmore and Robert Rothman (1999)
Learning is a system of parts that must be well tuned and work together. While Title I has been in place since 1965, Richard Elmore and Robert Rothman believe that it has not been serving its intended purpose. In this book, the authors provide a guideline for attaining high standards for all students; the original goal of Title I. Emphasis is placed on the interrelation of those at each level of the education process. The authors feel that the improvement of standards and assessment must come from motivated teachers who recognize the need to continually refine their teaching methods to meet the needs of their students.

Setting Higher Sights: A Need for More Demanding Assessments for U.S. Eight Graders
American Federation of Teachers (1998)
As American students progress through elementary school, they fall more and more below the international level of academic competency. In this report, conducted by the AFT, the focus is on the inability of American public schools, as compared to foreign school systems, to provide a high level of standards for students. The report suggests the competency level of assessment tests be heightened so teachers, parents and students can raise the benchmark of American standards to the world’s elite.

Building Support for Tests that Count: A Business Leader’s Guide
The Business Roundtable (1998)
Standards are important in improving our school systems, but they are only the first step. This report, from The Business Roundtable, offers evidence in support of the need for strong assessment tests to supplement state standards. Suggestions for assessment enforcement and increased awareness of student progress at home are presented.

Hiring Smart: An Employer’s Guide to Using School Records
National Alliance of Business (1998)
It is time to demonstrate to students that academics count and there is no better place to do this than in the workforce. This publication advocates the use of academic school records in hiring procedures. It acts as a guide to employers and gives instructions as to how to use school records to review attendance, discipline, and skills histories of potential employees.

A Policymakers Guide to Standards-Led Assessments
CRESST and ECS (1997)
There is a growing need for new forms of assessment in schools. In this article, Robert L. Linn and Joan L. Herman argue that existing means of assessment such as multiple choice tests are no longer effective. Instead, they look to assessment that is properly aligned with standards and that elicits oral response from the student as a more efficient way of observing student progress and maintaining effective curriculum. While the authors concede that such a program would demand more time and money for teachers, they feel that proper assessment would ultimately lead to higher academic standards.

Defining World Class Standards Series
American Federation of Teachers (1994)
In this Standards Series, the AFT compares the youth of America to the rest of the world. This AFT mission statement announces its upcoming research of academic standards in foreign school systems. By producing a study of academic standards in foreign school systems and evaluating their degrees of success, the AFT hopes to further the improvement of standards in the United States. Using foreign standards, as blueprints for what has been successful and what has not, will enable American schools to take academic initiatives with confidence.