NATION IN BRIEF : NATIONWIDE : Report Critical of Standardized Tests

Simple justice and workplace realities demand that American schools and employers stop relying on flawed standardized tests to decide who gets ahead, the Ford Foundation’s National Commission on Testing and Public Policy said in a report. The panel of education, government, business and labor leaders said standardized test scores are often the single barrier keeping promising students out of schools or competent employees from advancing. The group recommended a series of steps designed to improve the accuracy as well as reduce the influence of the tests. Among the panel’s conclusions: Tests should promote human talents rather than inhibit them; multiple-choice tests should be replaced with better methods of evaluation, and test results alone should not be used to make any major judgments about a person.