School personnel should be provided the necessary training to interpret data accordingly. We support your supposition to have the federal government financially assist states in developing quality assessments that are linked to state standards. However, we question the ability of individual states to then cover the potentially extreme cost of conducting annual assessments for grades three through eight. This is an area that needs serious consideration. Simply stated, we support testing and accountability - but not based on one test administered at one specific time.
Assessment needs to be broad and more inclusive.
We believe that schools should assess the academic progress of students in a variety of ways so that a compilation of information reflects a student's progress in moving through the school curriculum. Here, though, we must caution against instituting a school ranking structure that focuses on outcomes and further weakens the morale of struggling schools and school districts. Too often rankings ignore that progress low-performing schools make from year to year by highlighting only their final score. Here again, we believe that there ought to be some particular importance placed on the special challenges faced by secondary schools. Requirements for diagnostic testing cease at the eighth grade level in your plan while no support is made apparent for a quality assessment of the achievement of high school students.