Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has recently been amended; it allows states to be free in their attitude toward using types of tests and assessments. Many states started to implement or propose the ACT and the SAT college admission tests, which are focused on summarizing assessments in high school. However, such a trend is controversial in the educational measurement community.
A set of articles and commentaries by respected scholars was collected to represent different points of view on this issue. A paper published by the National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME) was reprinted as it helps to understand the following material in this special issue. Dr. Wayne Camara et al. have drafted a pivotal paper to support states in developing the validity arguments for using ACT and SAT test scores for accountability.
There are commentaries by three groups of authors: Scott, Marion, and Chris Domaleski are the first, Craig Walker and Marianne Perry the second, and Ezekiel Dixon-Roman the third. The first doubts that Camara et al.’s validity argument is convincing as it does not consider the more general aspect of the problem. The second offers the state’s point of view on the issue, emphasizing the validity concerns in the example of Oklahoma. Commentaries of Craig Walker and Marianne Perie are compelling as they address practical aspects of adapting to the changes. The third set of authors is only Dixon-Roman of the University of Pennsylvania, who calls to discuss the socio-political power of using those tests more. Therefore, the point of view of Camara et al. is not taken as a complete and exhaustive one. Conversely, other academics have found something to add and something to criticize that helps to see the problem more objectively.
References
Everson, Howard T. Introduction to Special Section: The Validity of Using College Admission Tests as Indicators of High School Accountability. National Council on Measurement in Education, 2019.