Prominent Educators Back "Multiple Measures" in NCLB Overhaul

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

The Forum for Education and Democracy
http://www.forumforeducation.org <http://www.forumforeducation.org/>

                       for further information:
                       Dr. George H. Wood - (740-448-3402)

for immediate release Monday, August 13, 2007

LEADING EDUCATORS, SCHOLARS, AND RESEARCHERS
LEND SUPPORT TO CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS'
CALL FOR "MULTIPLE MEASURES" IN "NO CHILD" OVERHAUL

More than 100 leading educators, scholars, and researchers have sent a 
letter to members of the Senate and House education committees in 
support of a call from civil rights groups that any overhaul of NCLB 
include "multiple assessments of learning and multiple indicators of 
school performance."  Twenty-three civil rights and disability 
organizations, including the National Association of Colored People 
(NAACP), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), ASPIRA, and 
the National Alliance of Black School Educators, conveyed that message 
to Congress in an August 7 letter.  The groups called for changes in 
NCLB that would assess schools "in ways that produce high-quality 
learning and that create incentives to keep students in school."

Among the 117 signers of the letter are policy makers Nebraska 
Commissioner of Education Doug Christensen, Massachusetts State School 
Board member Ruth Kaplan; leading measurement and evaluation experts, 
including Gene Glass, Edward Haertel, Robert Linn, Lorrie Shepard, 
Richard Shavelson and Eva Baker; educational researchers Linda 
Darling-Hammond, Howard Gardner, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Henry 
Levin; civil rights advocates Nadine Cohen and Clyde Murphy; and leaders 
in school renewal including Ted Sizer, Wendy Puriefoy, Pedro Noguera, 
and John Goodlad. (Complete list of signers at 
http://www.forumforeducation.org/foruminaction/index.php?page=391
<http://www.forumforeducation.org/foruminaction/index.php?page=391.%29>
The letter of support explained that "current administration of federal 
educational policy has, through its exclusive emphasis on (primarily 
multiple choice) standardized test scores, both narrowed the curriculum 
in many schools and led to a focus on lower level intellectual skills"  
as opposed to "the higher-order thinking skills our democracy and 
economy require." It has also undermined efforts to develop more valid 
assessments of learning for special needs students and English language 
learners, while increasing incentives to exclude students from school.

Lorrie Shepard (Dean, College of Education at the University of Colorado 
and President, National Academy of Education) praised the effort to push 
for multiple measures: "Measurement experts are keenly aware of the 
limitations of standardized tests.  That's one reason that the Standards 
for Educational and Psychological Testing require that critical 
educational decisions be based on more than a single test score.  We 
also know from 20 years of research on the effects of high stakes 
testing that greater and greater pressure to raise test scores 
exacerbates the known weaknesses of standardized measures.  The call for 
"multiple assessments of learning" and "multiple indicators of school 
performance" would provide some protection against the narrowing and 
dumbing down of curriculum that occurs in response to multiple-choice 
accountability tests."

The letter emphasized that using multiple sources of evidence, including 
performance and locally-based assessments, provides many benefits to 
education and accountability:  

   - The use of an index of measures of school performance provides a
   better picture of overall school performance;

   - Multiple measures supports a balanced approach to school
   improvement, insuring that a single-minded focus on standardized
   tests does not lead to narrowing the curriculum or to inappropriate
   practices such as keeping out or pushing out students who do not
   test well;

   - A range of assessment types is the only means for assessing a
   comprehensive range of content and skills;

   - Performance assessments provide for a focus on higher-order
   thinking skills.

The letter also noted that NCLB calls for multiple measures of student 
performance and a focus on higher-order thinking skills, but little in 
the administration of the legislation had aided such outcomes.  The 
writers explained, "Our experience with the law as educators, policy 
makers, researchers, and parents over the past five years has shown us 
that the current law and its implementation have discouraged the kinds 
of state and local assessments and reporting systems needed to make 
educational progress and to validly assess all of the students in our 
schools."

Eva Baker (Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA) indicated she 
hoped that this effort would lead to improving "NCLB to encourage 
student accomplishments that include but go beyond transient test 
scores.  Every student needs to demonstrate skills and knowledge in 
technically sound ways that will serve them in school and work." Linda 
Darling-Hammond (Ducommun Professor of Education and co-Director of the 
School Redesign Network at Stanford) noted that moving to such 
assessments would also "direct more attention to the higher order skills 
and content which are necessary for our children in the economy of the 
21st century."

George Wood, Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy, and a 
school principal, praised the focus on higher-level thinking skills.  
"Many of us in the field know that the reliance on standardized test 
scores as the only measure of school success is narrowing the school 
curriculum, particularly for our most school-dependent children.  This 
is a crucial civil rights issue; denying our children access to the 
skills and content which make democratic citizenship possible consigns 
them to second class citizenship and economic hardship."  He went on to 
note that he was pleased with the response that calls for multiple 
measures of school and student success have received in Congress and 
expressed optimism that NCLB reauthorization would fund such options for 
states and districts.

The full copy of the letter and a complete list of signers may be found 
at http://www.forumforeducation.org/foruminaction/index.php?page=391

The civil rights group letter is available at www.edaccountability.org 
<http://www.edaccountability.org/>