Education Reform Initiative

Beyond the Scantron

Tests and equity in today's schools

The role of testing dominates many education policy conversations from classroom practice to state accountability systems to college admissions. In this series, the expert voices of parents, educators, researchers, and policy makers discuss how assessments are built, how they are used, how they can be improved, and the critical role they play for students during the pandemic and beyond.

Read the series introduction

Expert Viewpoints

A Testing Primer: A Researcher Translates for the Rest of Us

Mark Dynarski, an education advisor to the George W. Bush Institute and founder and president of Pemberton Research, walks through key topics and consideration points in testing.

Education Reformers: You Need to Do More Than Take a Book Report to a Knife Fight

Keri Rodrigues, cofounder of the National Parents Union, passionately discusses public education and testing from the perspective of a parent.

Demystifying Tests for Parents

Bibb Hubbard and Cindi Williams of Learning Heroes discuss the role that quality assessments play in helping parents understand their children’s academic progress.

Assessments and the Building of Knowledge

John White, former state superintendent of schools in Louisiana, offers advice to educators, policymakers, and parents — and shares his thoughts on innovations in testing.

High-Quality, Fair Tests Can Help Students with Disabilities

Sheryl Lazarus, director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes at the University of Minnesota, discusses how students with disabilities and English learners need appropriate accommodations for standardized testing.

The Evolving Lessons of Testing

Scott Marion, executive director of the Center for Assessment, details how new, richer, testing may evolve.

The Three W's of Testing

Andrew Ho, the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explains the importance of knowing "who" is making "what" diagnosis to inform "which" decision.

We Don’t Need a “Data Vacation” During the Pandemic

Chris Stewart, CEO of brightbeam and a dedicated parent activist, discusses why quality assessments can help parents and teachers grasp the academic needs of their students — particularly students of color.

Marry Tests to the Goal You Want Them to Achieve: An Insider's Look at the SAT and PSAT

Auditi Chakravarty, senior vice president of learning, evaluation, and research at the College Board, details details how tests like the PSAT and SAT are created and how tests should be used to serve a purpose.

Preparing for 2030 Requires Knowing Whether Students are Ready

Mike Miles, founder and CEO of Third Future Schools, a charter school network in Colorado and Texas, explains the role of testing in preparing students for the year 2030.

Disruptions Present Opportunities to Do Something New in School Testing

Larry Berger, CEO of Amplify, spoke about the purposes of different assessments, the way textbooks are selected, and how we could use the COVID-19 crisis to think anew about testing students.

How Teachers Help Texas Create Its State Exams

Cindy Riney, teacher in the Montgomery Independent School District north of Houston, has served on panels that review test questions for the STAAR exams. She discusses how test questions are reviewed, refined, or rejected in Texas — and teachers' role in the process.

Validity, Reliability, and Feasibility are Key to Developing Quality Tests

Jeffrey Nellhaus, former deputy commissioner of education in Massachusetts, discusses how validity, reliability, and feasibility are central to good testing programs.

The Basics