I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1513
To provide for fairness and accuracy in high stakes educational decisions
for students.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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 fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce
A BILL
To provide for fairness and accuracy in high stakes
educational decisions for students.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 find-
ings:
(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, pro-
grams, or classes based on achievement level), pro-
motion of students to the next grade, and gradua-
tion 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 signifi-
cant 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 dis-
criminatory 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, attri-
bution of cause, and effectiveness of treatment, the
National Research Council made key findings for ap-
propriate 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 oppor-
tunity.
(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 ex-
pected to meet world-class standards, there is a
need to provide world-class curricula and in-
struction to all students. However, in most of
the Nation, much needs to be done before a
world-class curriculum and world-class instruc-
tion will be in place. At present, curriculum