Thomas Toch
Education Sector
January 2006
In Education Sector's inaugural publication, Thomas Toch presents a compelling account of NCLB's impact on the testing industry. His bottom line is that the "complex test-making infrastructure is buckling under the weight of NCLB's testing demands." As testing companies expand rapidly, reports Toch, test quality is being left behind. Psychometricians jump ship from state departments of education to more lucrative jobs in the testing companies, and states then lack the brainpower and muscle to keep those companies on the straight and narrow. The result? An increasing rate of blatant scoring mistakes that has caused students to, for example, miss graduation (because of supposedly failing test results), and forced others to attend summer school. But there are subtler problems as well. Because of the prohibitive cost, testing companies resist developing exams that probe beyond basic skills. And unless states are willing to advocate and pay for more complex assessments, the companies are unlikely to provide them. None of this spells a major affront to standards-based reform or NCLB; Education Sector is careful to communicate its strong support for the law. But it would have the feds play a stronger role in improving the country's testing infrastructure, at the least by paying for the training of 1,000 new testing experts and the development of stronger state tests. Its boldest recommendation is for the development of national tests. Beyond the myriad contributions such tests could make to education policy and practice (see here and here), they would also be more cost-efficient than the 50-state patchwork we have now. With a serious discussion of national standards and tests breaking out across the ideological spectrum, is there reason to hope that the time is right? We think so-but we also remember who worked behind the scenes (and put up big money) to torpedo President Clinton's "voluntary national tests" back in the 1990s: the selfsame testing industry. Now it has even more money-and more to lose. You can read the Education Sector report here.
