Why TEST TRANSPARENCY Should be the Next Great Cause of Education Activists

While campaigning for a reduction in high stakes testing, along with recognition of the right of parents and students to opt out of state tests, education activists should also launch a movement for TEST TRANSPARENCY- demanding that tests be made public after they are administered, and that tests after they are graded should be given to teachers so they can use completed tests as an educational tool to HELP individual students, not use them for secret calculations to rate students, teachers, and schools. Test secrecy in its current form is profoundly undemocratic. It protects public officials and test companies from the kind of scrutiny necessary to prevent corruption and abuse, as well as inhibiting public discussion of the value of current test policies. There will be disagreement among people of good will about how much testing we need in schools, but there should be no disagreement of the need to have complete openness about how tests are developed, how they are implemented, how they are graded and how they are used.