"Sats replacement ideas divisive" (BBC News, 02/11/09)

Two education unions have called again for national curriculum or "Sats" tests in England, and school league tables derived from them, to be scrapped.

"High Hopes for College Despite Low Test Scores" (New America Media, 02/10/09)

In a state where fewer than half of low-income students graduate from high school, this school is taking the mantra of "high expectations" to another plane.

"Do Children Understand How Feelings Affect School Performance?" (Science Daily, 02/06/09)

Do children understand the link between feelings and performance? A new study by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, Davis, tells us that children comprehend the influence of one on the other, but only under certain circumstances.

"Advanced placement lags behind" (Cincinnati Enquirer, 02/07/09)

Ohio and Kentucky trail national averages in the percentage of high school seniors taking and passing Advanced Placement exams.

"Giving Choice and Taking It Away" (Inside Higher Ed, 01/07/09)

The controversial Score Choice program announced in June is purported to help relieve student stress, but colleges are being explicitly offered options by the College Board that would limit student choice over scores or result in admissions offices having score information that students might not want reviewed.

"The Big Cram for Hunter High School" (NYTimes, 01/02/09)

Six graders study word roots as they prep frantically for the entrance exam that will determine whether they are eligible to attend Hunter College High School.

"Building a Better Admissions Test" (Inside Higher Ed, 11/11/08)

Most standardized admissions tests — from the SAT and ACT to those used for admission to graduate and professional schools, such as the Law School Admission Test — promise one thing: to predict academic success in the first year enrolled. Most standardized tests also face growing skepticism because white and Asian students tend to outperform, on average, black and Latino students.

What if a standardized test managed to predict much more than first-year success? And what if there existed the possibility of having standardized tests that didn’t have ethnic or racial gaps, but better predicted long-term success?

School’s Success Gives Way to Doubt

The state has recently started a criminal investigation into test scores at Sanders-Clyde Elementary, seeking to determine whether a high number of erasure marks on the tests indicates fraud.

Texas: TAKS Test Passage Rules May Change

Texas students in certain grades would no longer have to pass the state achievement test to be promoted under a new school accountability plan unveiled Tuesday by leaders of the House and Senate education committees. The Dallas Morning News, October 21, 2008

College Board Will Offer a New Test Next Fall

A new test intended to prepare eighth-grade students for high school and college courses, not for use in assessment or college admissions, will be available to schools next fall, according to the College Board. The New York Times, October 22, 2008

Under "No Child" Law, Even Solid Schools Falter

Many schools, even schools that make progress, are not making enough progress to meet the annually increasing goals that states agreed to when they signed on to the legislation. The New York Times, October 13, 2008

A Dead Language That's Very Much Alive

Students looking to increase their SAT scores are turning back to Latin study. The New York Times, October 6, 2008

Groups Seek to Keep a Spotlight on Issues of Testing, Standards

The No Child Left Behind Act is not likely to be reauthorized this year and isn’t getting much play on the presidential campaign trail.

But this week, some of the most ardent supporters of testing and standards discussed how the law has bolstered education and what next steps policymakers should consider in renewing it in the next Congress. Education Week, September 17, 2008

Are High-Stakes Tests Making the Grade?

After a decade, have the standards and their high-stakes tests improved public education in Virginia?

It depends on whom you ask.

Laptops in Schools Help Research, Writing, but Not Test Scores

Student research and writing are on the rise in schools in the state’s laptop initiative, but test scores aren't seeing the same benefit, Education Department officials told legislators this morning.

Districts 'Scrubbing' Away Thousands of Students' Test Scores

In this era of academic accountability, the test scores of thousands of Ohio public-school students are being left behind. That's because districts are allowed to throw out test scores -- "scrub" them, in testing parlance -- of students who are not continuously enrolled from October through the testing dates in March and May.