FairTest
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The National Center for Fair & Open Testing, also known as FairTest, is an American educational organization that addresses issues related to accuracy in student test taking and scoring.
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[edit] Mission statement
According to FairTest’s mission statement: “The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) advances quality education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools. FairTest also works to end the misuses and flaws of testing practices that impede those goals.”[1]
[edit] University admissions
[edit] SAT optional schools
FairTest alleges that a standardized test (all students take the same test under the same conditions) such as the SAT or ACT "consistently under-predicts the performance of women, African-Americans, people whose first language isn't English and generally anyone who's not a good test-taker." [2] Fairtest maintains a list of more than 740 SAT optional schools.[3]
[edit] Other exams
FairTest also works to stop misuses of standardized admissions exams, such as the National Merit Scholarships, which it alleges create unfair barriers to equal opportunity and educational quality by relying on test scores to award millions of dollars in tuition aid.[citation needed]
[edit] K-12 education
FairTest also explores kindergarten through 12th-grade assessment issues.[4] It educates the public on the negative consequences of high-stakes testing and advocates for better ways of assessing students and providing accountability. It also works to remove state and local policies that require students to pass a standardized test (one where all students take the test under reasonably similar conditions) to graduate or be promoted to the next grade. It also has many materials on authentic, performance assessments and their uses for teaching and school improvement.
FairTest's current focus is reforming the federal No Child Left Behind law to make it an effective tool for school improvement and mobilizing those who oppose the current version of NCLB to advocate for a better law.[4]
Beginning in 2004, FairTest brought together more than 128 national education, civil rights, religious, disability and civic organizations to endorse a Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB. Out of the Joint Statement came a working group called the Forum on Educational Accountability, which developed recommendations for a new federal law that would:
- Improve schools through high-quality professional development for teachers and administrators.
- Involve parents more deeply in school improvement, and enable families to better participate in their children’s education.
- Continue to assess and report student learning, but base this on multiple measures, not just test scores. Expectations for achievement would be realistic, based on rates of improvement actually achieved by schools. Targeted assistance would replace sanctions. [1]
[edit] Controversy
"The College Board, which owns the SAT college entrance exam, is demanding that a nonprofit group critical of standardized tests remove from its Web site data that breaks down scores by race, income and sex." [5] FairTest refused.
The lack of credentials, false claims, and political connections of those who run the organization; the unnamed sources of funding, and the organization's tax returns have all raised questions about FairTest. "[T]est-optional policies at colleges and universities lead[ing] to artificially inflated average SAT scores among incoming freshmen, ... which is fueled in large part by Fair Test political activists, ... provides sufficient reason for media and academic organizations to reassess their reliance on Fair Test and other political organizations for meaningful input in the college admissions debate." [6]
[edit] References
- ^ "Mission Statement". The National Center for Fair & Open Testing. July 18, 2007. http://www.fairtest.org/mission-statement. Retrieved on February 22, 2009.
- ^ "SATs Not for Everyone, But Reality for Most". National Public Radio. 21 February 2007. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7418130.
- ^ Test Score Optional List
- ^ a b "FairTest". fairtest.org. http://www.fairtest.org/.
- ^ Schemo, Diana Jean (December 4, 2004). "College Board Asks Group Not to Post Test Analysis". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/education/04college.html. Retrieved on February 22, 2009.
- ^ Grabar, Mary (February 11, 2009). "Who Is Fair Test?". CNSNews.com (Alexandria, VA: Cybercast News Service). http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=43412. Retrieved on February 22, 2009.
