The speaker is Robert Schaeffer of
FairTest. He means that because the admissions scam included falsifying SAT and ACT scores, some schools may move away from requiring those tests.
According to 2016 data from
FairTest, 675,000 students opted out of testing in 2015, including 240,000 students in New York and significant numbers of students in New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, Illinois, California, Oregon, Florida, and several other states.
Retrieved from www.edtrust.org/ west/ our-work/ agenda-at-a-glance/ effective-teachers
fairtest.org.
Lisa Guisbond, an assessment reform analyst with Boston-based
FairTest, an organization critical of standardized tests, said, "I think the districts feel they're in a bit of a bind'' in terms of choosing whether to give field-tested students the MCAS, too.
11, 2011), http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/07/local/la-me_teacher_ cheating-20111107; How Standardized Testing Damages Education,
FAIRTEST, (Aug.
Over the past few months, news about the SAT has made national headlines and not in a good way: "Large SAT Score Decline Shows Failure of 'No Child Left Behind' and State High-Stakes Testing Strategy" (
FairTest 2011); "Eshaghoff, Emory University Student, Allegedly Took SAT For Other Students" (Huffington Post 2011); "SAT cheating scheme uncovered; 7 arrested" (Strauss 2011); "SAT Cheating Scandal: Are Stakes Getting Too High for College Admission?" (Khadaroo 2011); "Why Are Students Cheating on the SAT?" (Huffington Post 2011); "SAT Cheating Won't Go Away Soon" (Dobrin 2011).
In Table 1 below,
FairTest (2010) reveals the declining SAT scores in reading, math, and writing over the last five years, 2006 to 2010, in every student subgroup except one (Asian American or Pacific Islander).
The national teachers unions provide generous funding for research that supports their positions on education ($150,000 to
FairTest) as well as budgetary issues ($650,000 to the Economic Policy Institute) and social policy ($165,000 to People For the American Way).
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, or "
FairTest," is dedicated to advancing "quality education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools.
Monty Neill, deputy director of education, teaching and administration at
FairTest, an organization opposed to standardized testing, agrees that the key to improving writing is repetition, but said testing doesn't help.