U.S. Should Do More to Aid States in Developing Tests, Report Says

With the testing industry struggling to keep up with the demand fueled by mandates for more student tests, the Bush administration needs to take dramatic steps to ensure that states have the ability to develop high-quality K-12 assessments, the first report from a recently launched Washington policy group says.

President Bush should establish a commission on standardized testing and create an independent agency to oversee state tests, and Congress should more than double the $406 million it gives states to produce the tests, according to Education Sector, a nonprofit think tank formed last year by a former aide to President Clinton and a former education journalist .

“If they want to ensure that No Child Left Behind is successful,” Thomas Toch, a co-director and co-founder of Education Sector, said last week, “they are going to have to address the problems that No Child Left Behind has wrought...