CNN reports that U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings called in executives from major testing companies--including ETS, maker of the error-plagued SAT--for a meeting to discuss the industry's ability to meet the growing demand for standardized tests.
It's great that the Secretary is addressing this issue, which Education Sector's Thomas Toch analyzed in a recent paper suggesting that the testing industry is buckling under the pressure of meeting the new demand for tests created by NCLB. But two questions remain unanswered:
1) Is this meeting merely a chance for the Secretary to show public concern? Or will she use the opportunity to advocate for needed reforms at the federal level, including more financial support for state testing, incentives for colleges to train new psychometricians, and a national oversight board to monitor test quality?
2) Is she only worried about test accuracy? Because while high-profile SAT errors have put the focus on scoring accuracy, the biggest long-term problem with the assessment industry is arguably test quality. States and testing companies struggling to test more students in more subjects in less time seem to be falling back on inexpensive, quick-to-score multiple choice tests that don't assess the higher-order thinking skills students need to learn.
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