I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4333
To provide for fairness and accuracy in student testing.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 13, 2000
Mr. SCOTT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To provide for fairness and accuracy in student testing.
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 STUDENT TEST-
ING.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(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 or determinative reliance on
large-scale tests have increasingly resulted in ques-
tions and significant concerns by students, parents,
teachers, and school administrators about how to en-
sure 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
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) Problems of test validity are greatest
among young children, and there is a greater
risk of error when such tests are employed to
make significant 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
standardized 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 deter-
minant in such decision and may be considered in making
such decision only if—
(1) the test meets professional standards of va-
lidity and reliability for the purpose for which the
test’s results are being used, including the validity
and reliability of any cut score or performance
standard set or established for use on the test;
(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, is based on State or local content and perform-
ance standards, and is aligned with the curriculum
and classroom instruction;
(3) multiple measures of student achievement
are utilized, including grades and evaluations by
teachers, so that scores from large-scale assessments
are never the only source of information used nor
assigned determinative weight in making a high-
stakes decision about an individual student;
(4) students tested have been provided multiple
opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in the sub-
ject matter covered by the test;
(5) the test is administered in accordance with
the written guidance from the test developer or pub-
lisher;
(6) the State educational agency or local edu-
cational agency has evidence that the test is of ade-
quate technical quality for each purpose for which
the test is used;
(7) 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 they know and can do;
(8) the State educational agency or local edu-
cational agency provides appropriate accommoda-
tions for students with limited English proficiency,
including—
(A) if such a student is tested in English,
the student received academic instruction pri-
marily in English for at least 3 years prior to
the test, or if the student received instruction in
English for more than such 3 years, the local
educational agency determines that the student
has achieved sufficient English proficiency to
ensure that the test will accurately measure the
student’s subject matter knowledge and skills;
(B) in the case of students with limited
English proficiency who have not been taught
primarily in English for 3 years prior to the
test, such students are assessed, to the greatest
extent practicable, in the language and form
most likely to yield accurate and reliable infor-
mation about what those students know and
can do; and
(C) in the case of Spanish-speaking stu-
dents with limited English proficiency, such
students are assessed using tests developed and
written in Spanish, if Spanish language tests
are more likely than English language tests to
yield accurate and reliable information on what
those students know and can do; and
(9) the test is not used for a decision about
promotion or placement in special education for a
child below the age of 8 or grade 3.
(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 standardized test as part of a high
stakes decision described in subsection (b), shall con-
duct a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of the
test’s use on students’ education and educational
outcomes, with particular consideration given to the
impact on individual students and subgroups of stu-
dents 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 El-
ementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965,
uses a standardized test as part of a high stakes de-
cision described in subsection (b), and is located in
a State that does not conduct an evaluation under
paragraph (1), shall conduct a comprehensive eval-
uation of the impact of the test’s use on students’
education and educational outcomes, with particular
consideration given to the impact on individual stu-
dents and subgroups of students disaggregated by
socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, limited English
proficiency, disability, and gender. The local edu-
cational agency shall make the results of the evalua-
tion 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 Sec-
retary shall—
(A) conduct an evaluation similar to the
evaluation described in paragraph (1) among a