S.E. Phillips and Theodor Rebarber, AccountabilityWorks and the Education Leaders Council
June 2002
Another joint report by AccountabilityWorks and the Education Leaders Council, this 25-pager by S.E. Phillips and Theodor Rebarber provides a useful if somewhat technical guide to the relationship between a state and its testing contractor, including numerous responsibilities and expectations needing to be fulfilled by each side if the state testing program is to work well. It offers a rigorous, comprehensive and clear-headed set of guidelines and, while it's most apt to be of interest to state-level policymakers (and testing companies), if its advice were taken seriously it could prevent a lot of mistakes, confusions, ambiguities, recriminations, delays, false starts and wasted dollars. As state testing burdens mount under the pressure of No Child Left Behind (and as the overworked testing industry gets cocky or sloppy, well aware that there's no shortage of jobs and revenues waiting in the corridor), these specifications could prove very helpful. You can find it in PDF format at http://www.educationleaders.org/elc/events/model%20contractor.pdf.
