Forum on Educational Accountability
Press Release:
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Forum on Educational Accountability
http://www.edaccountability.org
for further information:
Dr. Hilda Crespo (ASPIRA) -
202-835-3600, Ext. 114
Dr. LaRuth Gray (NABSE) -
212-998-5137 or 212-998-5105
Dr. Deborah Ziegler (CEC) - 703-264-9406
Dr. Monty Neill (FairTest) - (617) 864-4810
for immediate release Tuesday, August 7,
2007
CIVIL RIGHTS,
DISABILITY ORGS. CALL FOR “MULTIPLE MEASURES” IN “NO CHILD” OVERHAUL
LEGISLATION;
FORUM ON EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY PRAISES GROUPS’ LETTER
AND REP. MILLER’S
LEADERSHIP ON THIS ISSUE
Nearly two dozen
major civil rights and disability advocacy groups today called on Congress
to include “multiple forms of assessment” and “multiple measures or
indicators of student progress” in legislation currently being drafted to
overhaul the controversial “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) federal education
law. In a letter delivered to members of the Senate and House education
committees, the groups wrote, “If education is to improve in the United
States, schools must be assessed in ways that produce high-quality
learning and that create incentives to keep students in school.”
Signers of the letter
included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Learning
Disabilities Association of America, National Alliance of Black School
Educators (NABSE), ASPIRA Association, NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, National Alliance for Bilingual Education, National
Urban Alliance, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Civil Rights
Project, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Indian
School Board Association and ACORN,
The groups’ letter
continued, “A number of studies have found that an exclusive emphasis on
(primarily multiple-choice) standardized test scores has narrowed the
curriculum. An unintended consequence has been to create incentives for
schools to boost scores by keeping or pushing low-scoring students out of
school. Push-out incentives and the narrowed curriculum are especially
severe for special needs students, English language learners, and students
without strong family supports.”
Among the arguments
made for including multiple measures:
* attention
will be given to a comprehensive academic program and a more complete
array of learning outcomes;
* higher-order
thinking and performance skills can be assessed;
* checks and
balances will be added to ensure that emphasizing one measure does not
come at the expense of other important educational goals; and
* schools will
be encouraged to attend to the progress of students at every point of the
achievement spectrum, not just those near a test cut-point labeled
“proficient.”
The letter concluded, “A multiple measures approach that incorporates a
well-balanced set of indicators would support a shift toward holding
states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that
improve student achievement. This is a necessary foundation for genuine
accountability.”
The Forum on
Educational Accountability (FEA), a group formed to advance the proposals
made in the Joint Organizational
Statement on NCLB (now signed by 138 national education, civil
rights, religious, disability, parent, civic and labor organizations),
praised the letter and cited a recent National Press Club speech by House
Education Chairman George Miller as indicators of the wide support for
making multiple measures of achievement an important part of any federal
education law.
“Clearly, there
is an emerging consensus that judging our schools largely on the basis of
simple-minded reading and math tests undermines educational quality and
equity," said FEA Chair, Dr. Monty Neill.
Two of the
Joint Statement's principles explicitly support the use of multiple
measures:
* “Provide a comprehensive picture of students' and schools'
performance by moving from an overwhelming reliance on standardized tests
to using multiple indicators of student achievement in addition to these
tests.”
* “Help states develop assessment systems that include
district and school-based measures in order to provide better, more timely
information about student learning.”
The full list of organizations that have
signed the letter: ACORN, Advancement
Project, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian Pacific
American Labor Alliance, ASPIRA Association, Civil Rights Project, Council
for Exceptional Children, Japanese American Citizens League, Justice
Matters, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Learning
Disabilities Association of America, National Alliance of Black School
Educators (NABSE), National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., National
Association for Asian Pacific American Education,
National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), National
Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and
Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA), National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents,
National Council on Educating Black Children, National Federation of
Filipino American Associations, National Indian Education Association,
National Indian School Board Association, National Pacific Islander
Educator Network (NPIEN), National Urban Alliance for Effective Education
(NUA).
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* the full letter is available
here
* See a print
formatted PDF of this press release.
