Giving Compass' Take:

· Although vetoed by Gov. Brown, lawmakers are still trying to pass a bill to eliminate California's Smarter Balance test and replace it with the SAT and ACT. The authors explain that although intended to boost more students into college, this bill dismisses the importance of education accountability and measuring students’ learning and achievement.

· What insights do state standardized tests provide that the SAT and ACT do not? Why is it important to keep these exams for students?

· Check out this article to learn more about education accountability and why it is important.

Providing all students with the chance to take college admissions tests sounds like a logical way to pull disadvantaged students into the college pipeline.

Unfortunately, the way state lawmakers are moving to do this is a huge mistake that will undermine accountability for excellence and equity. For several years, a number of school districts and others have been pressuring the state to administer the SAT or ACT in lieu of the Smarter Balanced tests in English Language Arts and math that all 11th graders are expected to take each spring.

Last year, the Legislature actually passed a bill to do just that, but it was vetoed by Gov. Brown. A new bill (AB 751) now moving quickly through the Assembly has brought the idea back into play.

There are so many reasons why this is wrong.

First, rather than measuring students’ learning or achievement, the admissions tests contribute to preserving an inequitable status quo. Their baked-in assumption is that student aptitude is distributed according to a bell curve. Test makers write and score questions to create that curve and rank-order students.

Read the full article about education accountability by Pamela Burdman and Christopher Edley, Jr. at EdSource.