Fifteen leaders in education, government, and industry have agreed to serve on a commission that will conduct a broad inquiry into the contemporary uses and abuses of standardized tests in America.
The panel, convened by the dean of the graduate school of education at the University of California at Berkeley, will conduct a series of hearings with experts in measurement, law, economics, political science, education, and related fields, and will prepare a variety of background papers and analyses in addition to a final report for policymakers, according to the university.
The work of the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy, as the group has been named, is being underwritten by an $800,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, and additional contributions from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the university. Bernard R. Gifford, dean of the Berkeley graduate school, will chair the panel.
Its investigation, Mr. Gifford has said, will mark the most intensive on the subject of testing since a 1978-82 study by the National Research Council.
Named last week to the new commission were:
Jose A. Cardenas, executive director, Intercultural Development Research Association; Julius L. Chambers, director-counsel, naacp Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Frederick R. Chang, director, Information and Decision Sciences, Pacific Bell; Bill Clinton, governor of Arkansas; Raymond C. Fisher, past president and member, Los Angeles Civil Service Commission; Badi G. Foster, president, Aetna Institute for Corporate Education; Douglas A. Fraser, University Professor of Labor Studies, Wayne State University, and past president, United Auto Workers; and George H. Hanford, president emeritus, The College Board.
Also, Katherine H. Hanson, executive director, Consortium on Financing Higher Education; W.W. Herenton, superintendent, Memphis City Schools; Antonia Hernandez, president-general counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund; Elridge W. McMillan, president, Southern Education Foundation; Patsy Takemoto Mink, former member, U.S. House of Representatives; and Edward E. Potter, lawyer, McGuiness & Williams, Equal Employment Advisory Council.
