More Standards, Please

Why is a highly promising, successfully piloted technology that can help resolve a number of important issues around testing students with special needs -- and save money -- still sitting on the shelf?

In this case, the barrier is getting the tools to integrate into current testing processes and software platforms. Sounds complex and geeky, but here's a helpful analogy: One of the powerful aspects of the Internet is that standards enable Web site creators' work to be accessible to anybody with a browser. And, the browsers are built to accommodate a variety of add-ins or helper applications to build new functionality and tools into the standard browser. But, imagine if each state had a different browser. And, for states to choose your new tool, they had to abandon their current browser (and all of the Web sites built to work with that browser).

Bubble sheets, scanners, and a variety of psychometric principles are part of a deep set of standard, shared tools that enable the current methods of assessment. If we want a much better system of assessment, it's not just content standards that policymakers need to think about. A variety of open standards and infrastructure for student data, growth modeling, and assessment software platforms also need to be implemented. Just as in content, a lack of open standards and shared infrastructure in these areas is a critical barrier to comparability. Perhaps more importantly, it's a costly, tangible barrier to the incorporation of new ideas and technologies.

Take read-aloud and other accommodations on a math test, for instance. (In order to ensure that the test assesses math and not reading, instructors read the questions and other information aloud.) While some states may have scripts to follow, it's almost impossible to ensure any type of consistency across thousands of readers providing accommodations in thousands of schools. Simple differences in the way a reader chooses to describe (or not describe) charts, graphs, and other information can skew the results. In this case, some common protocols across states would greatly enhance current practice.

Moreover, these common protocols would also enable us to develop a next generation of solutions to the problem of accommodations. States are already successfully piloting software tools, based on universal design principles, that can automate read-aloud and a wide variety of other accommodations. Not only do these tools ensure consistency, but they also eliminate the real costs to local schools of providing accommodations. Perhaps most importantly, the accommodations paradigm changes, providing students an element of control over pace and a variety of factors that can optimize the test-taking environment.

Investments in shared infrastructure to set the stage for long term growth and development -- can we get this shovel ready?