does not usually place sufficient emphasis on
student understanding and application of con-
cepts, as opposed to memorization and skill
mastery. In addition, instruction in core sub-
jects typically has been and remains highly
stratified. What teachers teach and what stu-
dents 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 re-
form 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 as-
sessments 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 edu-
cational outcomes are to discharge their respon-
sibility 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 indi-
vidual 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 automati-
cally be made on the basis of a single test score
but should be buttressed by other relevant in-
formation 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 deci-
sions 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 mi-
norities, English-language learners, and stu-
dents with disabilities.
(6) These principles and findings of the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences are supported in signifi-
cant measure by the Standards for Educational and
Psychological Testing, adopted and approved in De-
cember of 1999, by the leading experts and profes-
sional organizations on testing, including the Amer-
ican Educational Research Association, American
Psychological Association, and the National Council
on Measurement in Education.
(b) TEST PERFORMANCE.—If performance on a sin-
gle 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 edu-
cational 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 cri-
terion in such decision and may be considered in making
such decision only if—
(1) the test, including any cut score or perform-
ance standard set or established for use on the test,
meets professional standards of validity and reli-
ability for the purpose for which the test’s results
are being used;
(2) the test allows its users to make score inter-
pretations in relation to a functional performance
level, as distinguished from those interpretations
that are made in relation to the performance of oth-
ers;
(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 stu-
dents 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 cri-
terion used, in making a high-stakes decision about
an individual student;
(6) students tested have been provided multiple
opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in the aca-
demic subject covered by the test;
(7) the test is administered in accordance with
the written guidance from the test developer or pub-
lisher;
(8) the State educational agency or local edu-
cational 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 edu-
cational agency provides appropriate accommoda-
tions and alternate assessments for students with
disabilities that provide the students with a valid op-
portunity to show what the students know and can
do;
(10) the State educational agency or local edu-
cational agency provides appropriate accommoda-
tions and alternative assessments for students with
limited English proficiency (if the agency involved
determines that the students have not achieved suffi-
cient 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 (con-
sisting of psychometrically equivalent tests in
the students’ native language) in order to pro-
vide such students with a valid and reliable op-
portunity 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 in-