2007 HOUSTON HEARING ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND,
INPUT FOR U.S. CONGRESS:
TESTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Photo by Ben DeSoto

On March 27, 2007, Houston A+ Challenge convened more than 250 parents, students, educators, business leaders and community members for a statewide public hearing on No Child Left Behind.

These key observations and recommendations on Testing and Accountability were recorded during the Houston event and submitted to U.S. Senators by the Public Education Network on March 28, 2007:

• NCLB and standardized testing should not be eliminated -- however, significant improvements and supplementary emphases are needed. (This was repeatedly mentioned by participants.)
• There should be less emphasis on high-stakes testing and more emphasis on educating the "whole child." A clear loss of focus on the arts, sciences, physical education, and hands-on/real-world skills was noted, as schools focus on "teaching to the tests" instead of creating lifelong learners.
• NCLB should require states to use metrics that capture and report on individual student growth, instead of just schoolwide progress.
• Instead of high-stakes, year-end tests, more emphasis should be placed on smaller-scale diagnostic tests that allow teachers to make productive adjustments in their teaching.
• When evaluating students and schools, the accountability system should include additional measures. Suggestions included: student portfolios/projects and parent/community surveys.
• There should be national standards for accountability -- specifically, more national coordination of each state's grade-level standards. It was noted repeatedly that students from Louisiana who were displaced by Katrina and ended up in Houston were often one to two grade levels behind their local peers.
• There should be a more realistic way to capture the progress of English language learners. Many students need additional years for transition. One teacher noted: "My children are bright and eager and they can do it. But their level of English is not high enough to pass the test in English."