N.C.L.B.
ORG
N.C.L.B.
Thomas Toch writes that the scale of N.C.L.B. testing requirements, competitive pressures in the testing industry, a shortage of testing experts, insufficient state resources, tight regulatory deadlines and a lack of meaningful oversight of the sprawling N.C.L.B. testing enterprise are undermining N.C.L.B.'s pursuit of higher academic standards. N.C.L.B. is supposed to be increasing the caliber of education and this is lowering it. It's eroding the power of the test to explain what kids can and cannot do. In their legal papers, Connecticut officials said the deputy secretary of education, Ray Simon, suggested that the state, in addition to saving money by switching to multiple-choice reading and math tests in several grades and dropping its writing assessments, could also use multiple choice for the N.C.L.B. science tests in grades 5, 8 and 10. Betty Sternberg, Connecticut's education commissioner, said having challenging tests pushed schools to teach higher-level skills.