The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is advocating that single state assessment tests be replaced with multiple assessment options. State standards remain, and each of the assessment options is supposed to measure them.
The concern with such a multiple test option is that tests differ in their internal structures. The comparability of tests that purport to measure the same standards requires careful validation. Even then, the measurement error simply increases. Parents will not be able to believe the scores.
Using more tests does nothing to correct the negative impact of high stakes testing on students. It, in fact, simply increases the management problems and decreases the validity of any comparative results. Why test if scores on a test one district uses are different from those from another district?
If the assessment systems get anymore complicated than they already are, the whole accountability system may implode. Maybe that is not such a bad idea.
