Kurt Landgraf

[kber <kber@EARTHLINK.NET>]

has put out a piece of which readers of this list should be aware.
Jimmy Kilpatrick posted it today, as part of his In Defense of Testing
series on EducationNews.org

Ken Bernstein


ducation Reform:

Measuring Success


By Kurt M. Landgraf, President & CEO

of Educational Testing Service




The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act was a watershed event in

the national education reform movement. The President and Members

of Congress pulled together to make this happen without regard to

party affiliation, recognizing the public's demand that educating all
our

children is the nation’s top priority. However, far-reaching

reform will not come easily. We must now focus on three critical

factors that will determine success: a substantial commitment of

resources, sufficient time, and a great and sustained effort.


As we all know, circumstances have changed since this historic

legislation was first introduced. We face a new reality in the post 9-11


world. Attention has been placed, and rightly so, on security both at

home and around the globe. And the go-go economy of the past decade

has slowed. Shrinking budgets are forcing tough decisions by elected

officials at the state and local levels, and by everyday Americans
sitting

around their kitchen tables.


Yet the desire for meaningful education reform persists. An Opinion

Dynamics survey conducted for ETS in mid-February found that

Americans overwhelmingly back requiring states to annually test

students to determine if standards are being met. A majority of those

surveyed also support directing a larger share of federal education

money to schools that do not perform well on such tests to help them

improve.


While considerable federal funds have been made available for these

new tests, significant resources will have to come from the state level
as

well. Even as most state legislatures struggle to split up a smaller
pool

of tax revenue, we must ensure that they invest in building quality

assessments to support good teaching and learning.


It is now time for all of us — parents, students, teachers and

policymakers — to follow through on our commitment to

advancing quality and equity in education.


The No Child Left Behind Act calls for high standards, strong

accountability, and annual standards-based assessments. Federal

mandates now require testing some 22 million students every year. This

is an ambitious undertaking, and it has to be done right. But developing


a fair, accurate test, even in just one subject for one grade, is a
lengthy,

multi-step process. The specter of unreliable data and costly mistakes

assures us that we must invest the time and money it takes to get it
right

the first time.


The new testing regimen will provide important information that the

American people and policymakers can use to accomplish significant,

lasting reform. But testing alone is not enough; it’s just one
step

in education reform. We must respond to test results —

particularly poor results — intelligently, thoughtfully, and

responsibly in order to help teachers and students improve classroom

achievement. The challenge before us is to muster the political, moral

and professional will to improve public education. We must provide the

resources to help teachers teach and help students learn, and we must

monitor progress via well-designed assessments. Only then will we be

able to reach our goal: an education system marked by excellence in

student performance, elimination of the achievement gap, and, yes,

tangible evidence that no child is left behind.

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