Testing Provides Crucial Information: Statewide Annual Assessments Offer Insights into Whether Students Are Receiving an Equitable and Excellent Education

What role should statewide annual assessments play in education? The following essays present two differing views. For more than century, the National Urban League has empowered parents and students in underserved and urban communities to achieve equality in education, jobs, and justice. As a legacy civil rights organization, we recognize the power and necessity of data in the attainment of equity and excellence at scale. Throughout our history, the civil rights movement has relied upon data to identify and address disparities that affect African- Americans and other underserved communities. From striking down school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education to shining a light on the school-to-prison pipeline--data have been used to advocate for civil rights in education. Internally, data drive the development of the National Urban League's targeted programming in communities and the ways in which we advocate with and for the communities we serve. Our movement comprises 95 affiliates across 35 states and the District of Columbia that represent 300 communities, including parents, teachers, and students. In addition to providing a robust array of supports and services, Urban League affiliates serve as a conduit for the voices of African-American families and underserved communities through advocacy. This advocacy is critical because we continue to see our communities left out of decision making in education policy and co- opted by well-meaning, but misinformed individuals. Each year, the National Urban League publishes the State of Black America[R], a research publication that provides insights into the nation's inequities, the progress achieved in closing disparities, and our recommendations to reach equity and economic empowerment. This year, we included a State Education Equality Index (National Urban League, 2015), a ranking of America's student achievement based on data from National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). These data revealed that the largest achievement gaps were in states with large populations of color and in segregated neighborhoods with excessive rates of concentrated high poverty. Higher graduation rates for African-American and Latino students were found in states where these groups are a smaller portion of the population. While the nation has a clear and agreed-upon way to measure high school graduation rates, NAEP is a snapshot of student achievement created using a sample of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. While NAEP helps highlight national trends, we still need statewide annual assessments to capture student and school progress year-by-year. Statewide annual assessments became a requirement in federal law in order to protect students and families and to better ensure transparency. Before the federal law required statewide assessments, some schools would too often opt-out vulnerable students from taking assessments to hide achievement gaps and associated resource inequities--despite receiving public money to serve all students well. The quality of today's assessments has improved greatly from the multiple-choice tests of the past, and these assessments are better indicators of student success and learning because they must be aligned to college- and career-ready standards, and they measure student skills using a variety of methods. With data from these assessments, educators, principals, districts, and states can provide students with the personalized supports and necessary interventions to achieve academic success. …