The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.
We place special emphasis on eliminating the racial, class, gender, and cultural barriers to equal opportunity posed by standardized tests, and preventing their damage to the quality of education.
Why "no child left behind" will fail our children.
Most schools will fail to meet the unrealistic demands imposed by the law’s "adequate yearly progress" provision. Virtually no schools serving low-income children will clear the arbitrary hurdles. Many successful schools will be declared “failing” and forced to drop what works for them.
Standarized testing doesn’t work. Worse, it puts students in low income areas at a disadvantage, thus worsening the problems it attempts to fix.