By Charles Barone, DFER Policy Director
DFER commends Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Jim Gerlach (R-PA) for introducing the “Support Making Assessments Reliable and Timely” (“SMART”) Act. This is the best legislation we’ve seen yet to support and improve state student assessment systems and to identify and reduce over-testing.
Annual, statewide tests play an important role in guiding school improvement strategies and equitably directing scarce education resources to those students who most need them.
At the same time, parents, educators and policymakers are increasingly concerned about the overuse of substandard tests that are unaligned with college and career readiness, provide little additional useful information, and take precious time away from classroom instruction and personalized learning.
The SMART Act is wisely aimed at supporting state efforts to better understand what’s working and what’s not and helping them develop better assessment systems that provide parents and the public valid information, in a timely fashion, about students’ academic progress. By preserving and strengthening high-quality annual, statewide assessments and rooting out poorly designed tests, this bill will help ensure that:
- Tests are aligned with academic standards;
- Evaluations of school and student performance are based only on “apples-to-apples” comparisons across all schools and districts; and,
- Appropriate accommodations are made for students with special needs.
We see this bill as a model for framing the debate around accountability and testing when Congress, as is widely expected, takes long overdue action next year to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. We applaud Representatives Bonamici and Gerlach for the thoughtful and principled approach they brought to bear in crafting this legislation and look forward to working with her and other legislators to ensure that federal education policy maintains its 50-year commitment to advancing educational opportunity and equity.
###
Other organizations that have endorsed the SMART Act are: The Center for American Progress, the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, the Education Trust, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Education Association.
One page summary, from Office of Representative Bonamici: SMART Act Summary.pdf
Statement of Ranking House Education and Workforce Committee Democrat George Miller: here
Link to bill information, including text: here
Coverage by Politics K-12 at Education Week: here.