1. The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires “yearly student academic assessments” in public school grades three through eight. The Act does not specifically mandate annual statewide 
standardized tests.

2. An emphasis on standardized testing results in teaching to the test, skews school programs and priorities, and discourages quality teachers—sometimes driving them out of the profession. As a result, it will inhibit, rather than support, high-quality learning, and may well cause more students to be left behind.

3. The best, most accurate school assessment system is one that is locally created and operated following established guidelines for the development and use of multiple assessment measures.

1. The state [Board of Education] shall adopt statewide academic standards embodied in curriculum frameworks in the areas of English, mathematics, science and technology, history and social science, foreign languages, and the arts. Such standards shall delineate essential knowledge and skills, that, taken as a whole will not require more than [one half/two-thirds] of typical instructional time to enable students to meet, thereby allowing time and opportunity for individual student interests and school or district standards designed to meet special interests (e.g., an arts school) or local interests (e.g., agricultural science). State standards and frameworks for each subject area shall be approved by the relevant professional body of educators.

2. Each school district shall develop and adopt a system for assessing on an annual basis the extent to which the district, and every public school within the district, succeeded in improving or failed to improve student performance. Student performance shall be measured as the acquisition of the skills, competencies and knowledge called for by the statewide academic standards and curriculum frameworks, as well as local school and district standards and expectations, and the assessment of student progress toward areas of their own particular interest.

3. Each assessment system shall be designed to fairly and comprehensively measure outcomes and results regarding student performance, including complex and higher order thinking and application, and extended student work, and to improve the effectiveness of curriculum and instruction. In its design and application, each assessment system shall employ a variety of assessment instruments, including classroom-based and teacher-made assessments, using either comprehensive or statistically valid sampling. Each school or district shall include in its plan a description of how it will use assessment information to improve teaching and guide professional development, and how information will be summarized for public reporting purposes.

4. Instruments used as part of the assessment system shall be criterion referenced, assessing whether students are meeting the statewide academic standards. Such instruments shall include work samples, projects, and portfolios based on regular student classroom work to facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student performance.

5. The state [Board of Education] shall provide technical assistance to schools and school districts to design and implement the evaluation systems required by this section, including the development of models for local evaluation systems.

1. The federal No Child Left Behind Act aims to dramatically increase the use and importance of primary and secondary school standardized tests.

2. However, standardized test scores do not accurately assess the causes of low student achievement. Instead, they distract attention from the major causes of low academic performance: poverty and the lack of resources available to meet low-income students’ needs.

3. When standardized test scores are released to the public, policymakers, parents and taxpayers have the right to know all relevant data relating to these scores.

No agency of the state, or any governmental entity within the state, shall release any school-by-school or district-by-district listing of primary or secondary school standardized test scores to the public without simultaneously listing the following information for the same schools or districts: