National School Testing Urged

This is yet more evidence of the need for more rigorous standards -- and given that states have a proven inability to set them, we need national ones.

Some experts say it's time to be more clear about how well American schoolchildren are doing.

"The more discontented the public is with confusing and dumbed-down standards, the more politically feasible it will be to create national standards of achievement," said Diane Ravitch, a New York University professor who was an assistant U.S. education secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

The political obstacles are formidable, including a long tradition of local control over public education. But the approaching presidential campaign, a pending debate over congressional reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law and the wide gaps between assessments have raised hopes among proponents that the issue will gain steam. Some say gradual steps toward a national system would be better than none.

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National School Testing Urged
Gaps Between State, Federal Assessments Fuel Call for Change

By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 3, 2006; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR2006090201041.html

Many states, including Maryland and Virginia, are reporting student proficiency rates so much higher than what the most respected national measure has found that several influential education experts are calling for a move toward a national testing system.

The growing talk of national testing and standards comes in the fifth year of the No Child Left Behind era. That federal law sought to hold public schools accountable for academic performance but left it up to states to design their own assessments. So the definition of proficiency -- what it means for a student to perform at grade level -- varies from coast to coast.