Test Experts Wary on 'Race to Top' Rules

Officials Warned Against Using Single Assessment to Measure Gains
By Lesli A. Maxwell | Ed Week

While the U.S. Department of Education finalizes its rules for doling out $4 billion to states in the Race to the Top competition, a group of prominent testing experts is cautioning federal education officials on how they propose to use assessments to measure student achievement and teacher-quality improvements under the initiative.

The Board on Testing and Assessment, a part of the National Research Council, wrote in an Oct. 5 letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that he and the department should “pursue vigorously the use of multiple indicators of what students know and can do,” in the Race to the Top competition, part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act approved by Congress earlier this year.

The 13-member Board on Testing and Assessment, which is part of the National Academies, said it could not meet the Education Department’s Aug. 28 deadline to comment on the department’s proposed regulations for Race to the Top because of the academies’ requirement that any public document must be reviewed by an independent group of experts before it can be released.

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