HR 1513 IH

To provide for fairness and accuracy in high stakes educational decisions for students.

April 4, 2001

Mr. SCOTT (for himself, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. OWENS, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. CONYERS, Ms. LEE, Mr. TIERNEY, Ms. CARSON of Indiana, and Mr. BACA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce

To provide for fairness and accuracy in high stakes educational decisions for students.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN HIGH STAKES EDUCATIONAL DECISIONS FOR STUDENTS.

(a) FINDINGS- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) The use of large-scale achievement tests in education has grown significantly in recent years. States and local school districts have increasingly used these tests in such contexts as raising student academic standards to make high-stakes decisions with important consequences for individual students, such as tracking (assigning students to schools, programs, or classes based on achievement level), promotion of students to the next grade, and graduation of students from secondary school.

(2) The serious and often adverse consequences resulting from the sole reliance on large-scale tests have increasingly resulted in questions and significant concerns by students, parents, teachers, and school administrators about how to ensure that such tests are used appropriately and in a manner that is fair.

(3) In 1997, Congress directed the National Academy of Sciences to `conduct a study and make written recommendations on appropriate methods, practices, and safeguards to ensure that, among other things,...existing and new tests that are used to assess student performance are not used in a discriminatory manner or inappropriately for student promotion, tracking, or graduation.'.

(4) In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences, through its National Research Council, completed its study and issued a report entitled `High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion and Graduation'. Guided by principles of measurement validity, attribution of cause, and effectiveness of treatment, the National Research Council made key findings for appropriate test use in educational settings, including the following:

(A) When tests are used in ways that meet relevant psychometric, legal, and educational standards, students' scores provide important information, that combined with information from other sources, can lead to decisions that promote student learning and equality of opportunity.

(B) Tests are not perfect. Test questions are a sample of possible questions that could be asked in a given area. Moreover, a test score is not an exact measure of a student's knowledge or skills.

(C) To the extent that all students are expected to meet world-class standards, there is a need to provide world-class curricula and instruction to all students. However, in most of the Nation, much needs to be done before a world-class curriculum and world-class instruction will be in place. At present, curriculum does not usually place sufficient emphasis on student understanding and application of concepts, as opposed to memorization and skill mastery. In addition, instruction in core subjects typically has been and remains highly stratified. What teachers teach and what students learn vary widely by track, with those in lower tracks receiving far less than a world-class curriculum.

(D) It is a mistake to begin educational reform by introducing tests with high stakes for individual students. If tests are to be used for high stakes decisions about individual mastery, such use should follow implementation of changes in teaching and curriculum that ensure that students have been taught the knowledge and skills on which the students will be tested.

(E) Problems of test validity are greatest among young children, and there is a greater risk of error when such tests are employed to make high stakes decisions about children who are less than 8 years old or below grade 3, or

about their schools. However, well-designed assessments may be useful in monitoring trends in the educational development of populations of students who have reached age 5.

(5) The National Research Council made the following recommendations:

(A) If parents, educators, public officials, and others who share responsibility for educational outcomes are to discharge their responsibility effectively, they should have access to information about the nature and interpretation of tests and test scores. Such information should be made available to the public and should be incorporated into teacher education and into educational programs for principals, administrators, public officials, and others.

(B) A test may appropriately be used to lead curricular reform, but it should not also be used to make high-stakes decisions about individual students until test users can show that the test measures what they have been taught.

(C) High-stakes decisions such as tracking, promotion, and graduation should not automatically be made on the basis of a single test score but should be buttressed by other relevant information about the student's knowledge and skill, such as grades, teacher recommendations, and extenuating circumstances.

(D) In general, large-scale assessments should not be used to make high-stakes decisions about students who are less than 8 years old or enrolled below grade 3.

(E) High-stakes testing programs should routinely include a well-designed evaluation component. Policymakers should monitor both the intended and unintended consequences of high-stake assessments on all students and on significant subgroups of students, including minorities, English-language learners, and students with disabilities.

(6) These principles and findings of the National Academy of Sciences are supported in significant measure by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, adopted and approved in December of 1999, by the leading experts and professional organizations on testing, including the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education.

(b) TEST PERFORMANCE- If performance on a single large-scale test is considered as part of any decision about the retention, graduation, tracking, or within-class ability grouping of an individual student by a State educational agency or local educational agency that receives funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, such test performance shall not be the sole criterion in such decision and may be considered in making such decision only if--

(1) the test, including any cut score or performance standard set or established for use on the test, meets professional standards of validity and reliability for the purpose for which the test's results are being used;

(2) the test allows its users to make score interpretations in relation to a functional performance level, as distinguished from those interpretations that are made in relation to the performance of others;

(3) the test is based on State or local content and performance standards and is aligned with the curriculum and classroom instruction;

(4) the test follows implementation of changes in teaching and curriculum that ensure that students have been taught the knowledge and skills on which the students will be tested;

(5) multiple measures of student achievement, including grades and evaluations by teachers, are utilized to ensure that scores from the test are never the only source of information used, nor the sole criterion used, in making a high-stakes decision about an individual student;

(6) students tested have been provided multiple opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in the academic subject covered by the test;

(7) the test is administered in accordance with the written guidance from the test developer or publisher;

(8) the State educational agency or local educational agency involved has evidence that the test is of adequate technical quality for each purpose for which the test is used;

(9) the State educational agency or local educational agency provides appropriate accommodations and alternate assessments for students with disabilities that provide the students with a valid opportunity to show what the students know and can do;

(10) the State educational agency or local educational agency provides appropriate accommodations and alternative assessments for students with limited English proficiency (if the agency involved determines that the students have not achieved sufficient English proficiency to ensure that the test will

validly and reliably measure the subject matter knowledge and skills of the students), including--

(A) the use of a test other than an English-only test;

(B) the use of alternate assessments (consisting of psychometrically equivalent tests in the students' native language) in order to provide such students with a valid and reliable opportunity to demonstrate what the students know and can do; and

(C) in a case in which the Secretary of Education determines that more than 5 percent of the students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12 in a State are members of a single language minority group and are limited English proficient--

(i) the assessment of the students in that group using tests developed in the language of that group, if the State or

local educational agency determines that such tests are more likely than English-only tests to yield accurate and reliable information regarding what those students know and can do; or

(ii) if the language of the group is oral or unwritten or, in the case of Alaska Natives and other American Indians, if the predominant language of the group is historically unwritten, the furnishing of oral instructions, assistance, and other necessary information to such students relating to the English-only test; and

(11) the test is not used for a decision about promotion or placement in special education for a child below the age of 8 or third grade.

(c) EVALUATIONS-

(1) STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES- Each State educational agency that receives funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and uses a large-scale test as part of a high stakes decision described in subsection (b), shall periodically conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of high stakes decisions on students' education and educational outcomes, with particular consideration given to the impact on individual students and subgroups of students disaggregated by socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, limited English proficiency, disability, and gender. The State educational agency shall make the results of the evaluation available to the public and shall provide clear and comprehensible information about the nature, use, and interpretation of the test and the scores the test generate.

(2) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY- Each local educational agency that receives funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, uses a large-scale test as part of a high stakes decision described in subsection (b), and is located in a State that does not conduct an evaluation under paragraph (1), shall periodically conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of high stakes decisions on students' education and educational outcomes, with particular consideration given to the impact on individual students and subgroups of students disaggregated by socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, limited English proficiency, disability, and gender. The local educational agency shall make the results of the evaluation available to the public and shall provide clear and comprehensible information about the nature, use, and interpretation of the test and the scores the test generate.

(3) DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION- The Secretary shall--

(A) conduct an evaluation similar to the evaluation described in paragraph (1) among a representative sample of States and local educational agencies;

(B) report the results of such evaluation to Congress; and

(C) make the results of the evaluation available to the public.

(d) DEFINITIONS- In this section:

(1) IN GENERAL- The terms used in this section have the meanings given the terms in section 14101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

(2) LARGE-SCALE TEST- The term `large-scale test' means a test that is administered and scored under conditions uniform to all students so that the test scores are comparable across individuals.

(3) SOLE CRITERION- The term `sole criterion' means the only one standard (such as a test score) used to make a judgment or a decision, including a step-wise decisionmaking procedure where students must reach or exceed one criterion (such as a cut score of a test) independent of or before other criteria can be considered.

END