By Monty Neill
Since 1985, FairTest has been the nation’s only organization focusing solely on improving assessment and testing in public schools and college admissions. I have been a part of FairTest since 1987, leading our work on testing in the public schools. It has been tough work, fighting against a largely evidence-free ideology that claims high-stakes standardized testing leads to improvements in teaching and learning. This ideology dominates both major political parties and is backed heavily by big corporations (including test companies), hedge-fund billionaires, major media, many large foundations, and well-funded think tanks.
Our fact sheets on these topics sum up a great deal of research showing that test scores do not equal merit, achievement or genuine improvement. For example, since the advent of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, the rate of gain on the National Assessment of Educational Progress has declined for almost all demographic groups, grades, and subjects. High school graduation tests increase the dropout rate with no improvement in educational outcomes for those who do stay in school. Tests used for grade retention create yet more mischief, since flunking students leads to more dropouts, a loss of self-esteem, and no lasting educational improvement for those held back. And we know that all the damage caused by tests is greater for low-income students, students of color, English language learners, and students with disabilities, and is concentrated in the most economically needy communities. Despite these flaws, President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are pushing to pay teachers for their students’ test scores (mislabeled “merit pay”), another scheme that has been proven ineffective and harmful by research in and out of education.
Fighting this juggernaut has been an uphill battle. But across the country, courageous parents, teachers, and students have struggled for quality education and against the reduction of schooling to test preparation. They have boycotted tests, organized public forums, peppered the media with op-eds and letters, and pressured politicians. Some have faced threats, such as having their children declared ‘truant’ and themselves unfit parents for keeping their children out of school on testing days. Because NCLB requires 95% of students to be included in the tests or the schools will be punished, test-resisting parents are accused of hurting the schools their own children attend. They and other advocates are often derided as defending a failed status quo of unequal and often low-quality schooling, and allying with unions that refuse accountability. While such attacks are as evidence-free as the claims that tests are adequate measures of learning, they make winning genuine school improvement more difficult. We at FairTest are proud to collaborate with the many strong people and organizations fighting for test reform.
FairTest is not “anti-test.” In fact, we know that high-quality assessment is an essential component of education, that good assessment helps learning, and that parents and communities deserve solid information about how well their schools are doing and what steps they are taking to get better. While standardized tests tell us far too little, healthy classroom-based assessments provide essential information for all these purposes. FairTest has proposed comprehensive assessment and evaluation approaches that could be implemented in any state over a few years for a very small portion of its education funding.
We will continue to fight against the overuse and misuse of tests and for strong assessment and evaluation. Our website is a resource for activists, teachers, parents, students, scholars, and more. We have compiled a unique list of nearly 850 colleges that are test-score optional for all or many applicants. And we chair a large national alliance, the Forum on Educational Accountability, which is leading national efforts to overhaul testing and accountability in federal law.
Fact Sheets from FairTest are found in the Practical Materials section of this website.
Monty Neill is executive director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, and chairs the National Forum on Educational Accountability. He has led FairTest’s work on testing in the public schools for more than 25 years, including the release of the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing.
