Defining Quality in Education

The Institute for Educational Accountability (IEA) is dedicated to fair and authentic assessment. IEA supports heightened accountability in schools—requiring accurate and fair interpretation of standardized tests scores by each state’s education professionals.

Fair Use of Testing Legislative Proposal

No student shall be denied grade-level promotion or graduation solely upon scores on standardized tests.  Students whose scores fall below pre-set levels shall have their academic performance reviewed by state-certified education professionals serving in the student’s school using criteria approved by each state's department of education or school board.

States entrust their children to professional educators who interact, teach, and assess students on a daily basis while working with parents/ guardians to validate learning that may be evidenced on standardized tests.

Standardized tests are limited to scoring student responses. Tests cannot diagnose the reasons for scores—intelligence, learning disabilities, socio-economic influences, illness, family stress, or whether fundamental physiological and emotional needs have been met.  

States can ensure accuracy in assessment and protect children—certified education professionals are prepared to accurately and fairly assess children and the reliability of test scores from a holistic perspective. 

With very few exceptions educators and psychologists condemn the use of standardized tests as sole indicators of academic aptitude or achievement. This precept is well-articulated by the American Psychological Association (APA) in Code of Fair Testing. It states, “Avoid using a single test score as the sole determinant of decisions about test takers. Interpret test scores in conjunction with other information about individuals” (2005, Section C. 5, http://www.apa.org/science/fairtestcode.html.

D. Wakefield

 P. O. Box 5019

 Mount Berry, GA 30149

Take Action!

Send your legislators, newspaper, and community leaders the Fair Use of Testing proposal, asking for their support.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

Links

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing

Students Against Testing

Rethinking Schools

National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (CAST)

American Educational Research Association

Education and Testing Resource Site

IEA Resource Page

PowerPoint Presentation

Testing Opt-Out Form

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