Federal Review Puts State Tests Under Scrutiny

By the end of this month, 26 states will have undergone a “peer review” to determine whether their standards and tests meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The reviews, conducted by a team of at least three experts in the fields of standards and assessment, are required under the law. The reviewers do not look at the standards and tests themselves, but at documents showing that the assessments meet the law’s requirements.

As of Nov. 21, the U.S. Department of Education had posted letters to six states—Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia—on its Web site granting them “deferred” or “final review pending”...