FairTest

One of the key underlying rationales for using standardized test scores as the central element of school accountability systems, from the passage of NCLB forward, is the need to demonstrate and remedy school inequities across different student populations. Civil rights advocates have relied on test score disparities to argue for more funding and resources in school finance litigation and in the halls of state legislatures. And yet over 25 years later, "achievement gaps" persist and education in poorer districts and segregated schools (see Nicole Hannah Jones's piece in the NYT) remains stubbornly unequal and, in many places, inadequate.

The lack of certain key inputs -- a well-paid, well-qualified, stable teaching force, rich and culturally appropriate curriculum, proper infrastructure, extra-curricular activities, high-level coursework, counselors, etc. -- are the true evidence of unequal and inadequate schools. As for outcomes, an adequate educate education is more than a test score or something that can be reduced to a test score; graduating students need to be fully prepared for the demands of participatory citizenship, personal growth in a complex society, and economic life.

In efforts to get states and districts to meet their obligations in education adequacy and school finance litigation, test scores are not necessary and in some cases interfere with plaintiffs’ chances of securing remedies that actually address root causes of inequity, meet individual community needs, and ensure education quality. Focusing on inputs and a broader set of outcomes rooted in students’ civic, social and economic flourishing provide more useful and compelling legal arguments with greater educational benefit. A paper published by Educational Accountability Remade (EAR) makes the case. I invite you to read it and join the conversation on school accountability and how we can best advocate for equitable and quality education for all students. https://ow.ly/Ye4150ZUuYH

In all the teeth gnashing about worsening educational outcomes, what gets forgotten in places like The New York Times is that learning is built on trust parents and students place in schools. Without asking communities what they want their schools to be doing and what outcomes they want, and co-creating systems based on mutual assent, education policy will continue to fail. More beatings are not the answer.
Community trust should be the first principle around which school accountability systems are designed. Rather than compelling people to care about top-down measures, system leaders can learn from efforts like Kentucky's United We Learn initiative and Virginia’s support for locally-designed assessments, inviting communities to help define what success looks like and participate in holding school systems accountable. I invite you to read the paper published by Educational Accountability Remade (EAR), "Elevating Community Trust as the First Principle of Accountability," and join the conversation on school accountability. https://ow.ly/cbka50ZUtmP

Accountability centered on test-based compulsion has reached the limits of what it can produce. It has negatively impacted the students and communities it was intended to benefit, undermining educational quality by focusing on the rise and fall of an excessively narrow set of educational outcomes, and reinforcing rather than fixing inequities.

FairTest is happy to be part of a new effort to remake educational accountability after 30 years of largely diminishing returns. Educational Accountability Remade (EAR) is a group of local, state-level, and national innovators that includes policy leaders, researchers, psychometricians, and practitioners leading this work on the ground. Real accountability isn’t accomplished by top-down compulsion, but through mutual assent. In a series of papers addressing certain “tentpoles” of accountability, EAR confronts prevailing assumptions that hold the current system in place and suggest robust and viable alternatives to ensure school quality and student learning based on existing successful examples, from New York, Kentucky, New Mexico and Virginia. EAR recognizes that we must listen to what young people tell us they need, and build a new tent.

We should all work towards a system of accountability that works for learning that matters.

I invite you to learn more about the organizers, read the papers on system “tentpoles” and join the conversation at eduaccountability.org

Ninety Percent of Colleges Remain Test Optional or Free for Fall 2027 Admissions -

Educational Accountability Remade Launches With Call to Fundamentally Change Approach to School Accountability EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY REMADE: COALITION OF SYSTEM LEADERS, EDUCATORS, ACADEMICS, ADVOCATES AND INNOVATORS INTERROGATE ASSUMPTIONS OF EXISTING EDUCATION SYSTEM; GROUP CALLS FOR SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY BASED ON MUTUAL ASSENT RATHER THAN TEST-BASED COMPULSION; CITES EXAMPLES FROM ACROSS THE NATION O...

This Week's Testing News! -

This Week's Testing News! Check out our TWO new reports: One, What States Can Do To Improve Assessments and Accountability Systems: A New Report From FairTest and the NEA, outlines policy priorities shared with the NEA on how state and local union affiliates should be working with state and local authorities to improve asse...

Eric Hoover brings to light Jesse Rothstein's FAQ regarding the lack of data supporting and sloppy manipulation underlying calls to bring back the SAT at UC. Sorry Prof. Stankova but the idea that kids at poorer testing schools have a better chance of getting into Berkeley and UCLA is wrong. But I guess you teach Calculus not Prob/Stat.

A Researcher Adds What’s Been Missing From the UC Testing Debate: Nuance A new brief by a prominent scholar argues that some criticisms of the University of California’s test-free policy are predicated on assertions that simply aren’t true.

UC Berkeley Econ Professor Jesse Rothstein has provided REAL DATA confirming the campaign to bring back admissions tests to the UC is based on smoke and mirrors and deceptive data manipulation amplified by testing industry and a follow the NYT editorial media narrative. NO EVIDENCE that the SAT will fix any preparedness issues or that test free policies have been harmful to the quality of admitted students. It will undermine the mission of a great public university and bake in socioeconomic inequity to colleges of opportunity and social mobility. The decision makers here need to rely on facts not vibes.
https://ow.ly/BWaQ50ZLHtu