Voluntary National Testing Back to Spotlight Issues Back to CTEST Home Page	Introduction to the issues
	Official Documents regarding VNT
	Voluntary National Testing in the News
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Introduction to the issues

In his 1997 State of the Union address, President Clinton appealed to every state to "adopt high national standards, and by 1999, [to] test every 4th grader in reading and every 8th grader in math to make sure these standards are met."

The President argued that "Good tests will show us who needs help, what changes in teaching to make, and which schools to improve. They can help us to end social promotion. For no child should move from grade school to junior high, or junior high to high school until he or she is ready." (State of the Union address, February 5, 1997, emphasis added).

The grade four reading test will be linked to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) content frameworks; the grade eight math test to The Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) content frameworks (Beaton et al., 1996). The test is scheduled to come on line in the spring of 1999 with field testing and linking done in the spring of 1998. Currently, six states and fifteen urban school districts have signed on to the President's proposal.

The stated purpose of the test is to give parents and teachers an indicator of their children's overall proficiency compared to national and international norms. Such information would, the argument goes, empower parents and teachers to improve performance and hold the schools accountable.

Some advocates for children see the test as an important tool to leverage school reform for their constituents who are poorly served by the schools.

Others, however, worry about potential misuses, such as using the test for promotion decisions without additional resources being allocated to poor schools to level the playing field.

Official Documents

What are Voluntary National Tests?

• A link to the US Department of Education

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Letter From Secretary Richard Riley & Acting Deputy Secretary Marshall Smith To Department of Education Employees, November 14, 1997

• On November 13, President Clinton signed into law P.L. 105-78, the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for fiscal year 1998. The President noted that he was "signing into the record books what is plainly the best year for American education in more than a generation."
  
  The Department's 1998 appropriations bill is an important milestone in the President's effort to ensure that every 8- year-old can read, every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet, every 18-year-old can go on to college, and every adult can continue to learn for a lifetime. The bill is also an enormous vote of confidence in the work that all of you are doing here at the Department of Education, and we want to describe some of its highlights for you.
  
  First, the bill provides a total of $29.4 billion in discretionary funds for the Department. That's an increase of $3.1 billion, or almost 12 percent over the 1997 level of $26.3 billion. Even more important than the dollar totals, however, is the support the bill provides for the President's key initiatives:

VOLUNTARY NATIONAL TESTS. The bill provides full funding to proceed with immediate development of the first-ever voluntary national tests in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math, based on the widely accepted National Assessment of Educational Progress. The National Assessment Governing Board will oversee policies and development of the tests. The bill also permits pilot testing to begin in Fall 1998.

Directions for Locating the Full Text of the "Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1998," (H.R. 2264) at the Library of Congress's "Thomas" Website

1) Go to http://thomas.loc.gov

2) Go to Bills

3) Go to Major Legislation

4) Go to 105th

5) Click on Enacted into Law

6) Scroll down to item #21 "H.R. 2264"

7) Click on H.R. 2264

8) Scroll down to Law Text at the bottom of the page

9) Click on Law Text

Newspapers Articles

06/12/98; New York Times

By The Associated Press

Search NYT Archives

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Schoolchildren take such an array of standardized tests that the different results should not be compared to each other, an expert panel said Friday in a report that could bolster President Clinton's call for national testing standards. The special committee took no position on whether there should be national tests that would measure individual reading and math performance against a uniform standard.

03/08/98; The LA Times

http://www.latimes.com:80/HOME/NEWS/VALLEY/t000022711.1.html

• KARIMA A. HAYNES asked several community members whether national standardized tests should be used to assess academic achievement in local school districts.

2/18/98; Education Week
By David J. Hoff

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/23test.h17

• It was a blunt statement, the kind high-ranking Washington officials rarely make in public. "I don't think [the national tests] will ever come about," Acting Deputy Secretary of Education Marshall S. Smith told an audience of educators, business leaders, and reporters on Feb. 6. Mr. Smith uttered the words a day after 245 House members voted to end development of President Clinton's proposed tests on Sept. 30, unless Congress approves an extension. "It was a strong enough vote that it looks like it will be tough to get the test authorized," Mr. Smith said during a panel discussion in Washington organized by the National Center on Education and the Economy. While not enough to override an expected presidential veto, the vote was "substantial" enough to put the testing plan's future in serious doubt, the No. 2 Department of Education official added.

2/15/98: San Francisco Chronicle
By Debra Saunders Editorial Columnist

http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/02/15/ED68913.DTL

• Saunders argues that the proposed National Tests are theoretically a good idea, but that educrats cannot be trusted to correctly and effectively implement them. She cites California's problems with math initiatives as evidence. California recently adopted policies which require third graders to memorize multiplication tables and fourth graders to succesfully complete long division after the state's new-new math curriclum had led its students to score behind every NAEP participating state except Mississippis and Louisiana. Funding for the proposed National Tests was defeated this month by a vote of 242-174; the voting was largely along party lines.

02/10/98;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/22test.h17

• Opponents of national testing last week won the first of what could be several battles in the new session of Congress over the future of what was once President Clinton's top education priority. The House voted, 242-174, to approve a bill sponsored by Rep. Bill Goodling, R-Pa., the leader of the testing opposition, that would require Congress to "specifically and explicitly" authorize any test development beyond the current fiscal year.

02/03/98;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/21tests.h17

• The contractor that had agreed last year to write President Clinton's proposed voluntary national tests for students is still up for the challenge, even after an independent board revamped the contract. The Washington-based American Institutes for Research, which is heading the seven-member contractor consortium, planned to accept by late last week the altered statement of work and submit a response, said Archie LaPointe, the director of the center for assessment at the research center.

01/28/98;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/20test.h17

• The voluntary national tests that President Clinton had proposed students take beginning next year will not be given until 2001, an independent panel decided late last week. But it is possible the testing plan could face further delays or be scrapped altogether. The contractor that had agreed last year to take on the development of the tests in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math is to decide late this week whether it still wants the job now that the panel, the National Assessment Governing Board, has significantly revised the contract.

01/23/98; The Phiadelphia Inquirer
By Robert Greene: Associated Press

http://www.phillynews.com:80/inquirer/98/Jan/23/national/TEST23.htm

• WASHINGTON -- National reading and math tests sought by President Clinton should be delayed until after his second term, an independent board decided yesterday, denying Clinton a key item on his education agenda. Congress may still decide whether the tests should go forward at all. But even if it does, the National Assessment Governing Board, which has authority over test development, determined that the tests should be given no sooner than 2001.

01/23/98;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/19test.h17

• The debate over national testing may be the perfect example of Washington spin. No matter what happens, both sides find a way to declare victory. The public relations war will enter its next phase this week when a House committee meets in Granada Hills, Calif., to start a series of hearings on the issue. Aides to the Education and the Workforce Committee say the Jan. 21 event will explore the questions at the center of last year's extended debate over President Clinton's proposal for voluntary new nationaltests of 4th graders' reading skills and 8th graders' math abilities. State school officials and parents will testify about their desire--or lack thereof--for tests that would produce individual student scores based on national standards and their fears--or lack thereof--of adding another assessment to classrooms already heavily tested.

01/23/98;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/19achiev.h17

• One of the snags in comparing academic performance nationwide is that states each have their own ways of measuring what students know and are able to do. More and more, though, state leaders are eager to have some company when it comes to the difficult and politically risky work of ratcheting up expectations for students. So, next week in Washington, representatives from more than a dozen states plan to meet to see if they can figure out ways to compare the now-distinctive results of their statewide assessments of student learning.

12/18/97; The Washington Post; National

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/testing/testing.htm

• National tests are the key to President Clinton's education agenda. Clinton wants fourth-graders to be tested in basic reading, and eighth graders in basic math, starting in the spring of 1999. But his plan has come under withering attack and may not survive. This special report begins with an introduction to the national testing issue. Then test yourself on questions just like the ones that would appear on the exams. You can also read key news stories from the Post and a selection of editorials and opinion articles.

12/12/97;  Edcuation Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/vol-17/16read.h17

• One of the key policy decisions that cut into support for President Clinton's plan for new national tests was that the reading test be given only in English. Although every aspect of the proposed voluntary tests is in limbo while an independent body takes them under review, that decision highlights the ongoing educational challenge of assessing the literacy skills of the many students from immigrant families who are not yet proficient in English. The goal of the proposed national tests in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math, from the administration's view, was to help parents and teachers measure individual student achievement. But advocates for students with limited English proficiency, representatives of civil rights groups, and many liberal members of Congress, among others, countered that students who are still learning English would be shut out of a measure of their reading ability.

12/10/97; The Washington Post; Page B01 
By Fern Shen; Staff Writer

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/10/118l-121097-idx.html

• Montgomery County students continued their modest, steady overall improvement in reading scores last year, but pronounced racial disparities in student achievement remain, according to results released yesterday by Montgomery County's public schools.
  

12/10/97; The Washington Post; Page A25 
By Jay Mathews

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-12/10/010l-121097-idx.html#TOP

• Curtailing the SAT I and a few other expensive standardized tests would revive local initiative more readily than blocking Clinton's tests. Some norm-referenced tests that cost states millions of dollars are no more useful in diagnosing individual learning problems than trying to discover who in class has the flu by taking every child's temperature.

12/03/97;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1867+0+wAAA+%26%28Assessment%26Board%26Wrestles%26With%26Test%26Mandate%29%26AND%26%28Assessment%26Board%26Wrestles%26With%26Test%26Mandate%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28Assessment%26Board%26Wrestles%26Wit

• As President Clinton highlighted their efforts in a recent weekly radio address, members of an independent panel delegated by Congress to study his proposal for new national tests began grappling with many of the questions that have surrounded the plan since its announcement 10 months ago. How will the voluntary tests of reading and math be used? Can such use be monitored? What does "voluntary" participation mean? What is the best design for the tests? Can the new testing program, which is to be based on the frameworks of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, be linked to naep without damaging the reliability of either?

11/23/97; The Detroit News

http://detnews.com:80/1997/nation/9711/23/11230031.htm

• WASHINGTON -- President Clinton said Saturday that pilot tests in reading and math for elementary students would be developed by fall to ensure that every school child masters the basics. Clinton announced the appointment of Diane Ravitch, an assistant secretary of education under former President Bush, along with Lynn Marmer, a lawyer and Cincinnati school board president, and JoAnn Pottroff, a Kansas state representative, to vacancies on the NAGB.

11/23/97; The Washington Post; Page A10
By Stephen Barr

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/23/165l-112397-idx.html

• President Clinton announced yesterday that pilot tests in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math will be developed by next fall under his plan to raise educational standards through voluntary national exams. A number of congressional Republicans have fought to stop Clinton from giving national tests, but the first legislative battle ended this month in a compromise that shifted development of national tests from the Education Department to a bipartisan, independent National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB).

11/18/97;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1925+0+wAAA+%26%28Test%26Proposal%26to%26be%26Tested%26by%26Experts%29%26AND%26%28Test%26Proposal%26to%26be%26Tested%26by%26Experts%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28Test%26Proposal%26to%26be%26Tested%26by%26E

• In the $29.4 billion education appropriations bill that the president signed into law last week, Congress included several steps to solicit independent, expert opinions on the proposal for voluntary tests in 4th grade reading and 8th grade mathematics. The law shifts the exclusive authority over creation of the tests, one of Mr. Clinton's top policy priorities, away from the Department of Education. And, as expected, it gives that power to an existing, independent citizens' panel, the National Assessment Governing Board. In addition, Congress asks the National Academy of Sciences to conduct three studies that will look at such issues as whether existing tests can be linked to yield the results the proposed tests are supposed to deliver.

11/12/97; The New York Times
By JACQUES STEINBERG

http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/national-testing-educ.html

• While a majority of Americans support the idea of national tests, most teachers oppose them. A survey this month by Phi Delta Kappa, an academic association, found that 69 percent of teachers oppose such tests, many of them agreeing with Ms. Schroeter that their students are already over-tested. "I understand the need to have some kind of way to communicate how effective we are being as teachers and, more importantly, where we need to provide better support to our students," Ms. Schroeter said. "But I think it's a bit of overkill to add another one." "One thing our teachers are saying," said Tom Mooney, a Cincinnati teacher and teachers' union leader, "is, 'We already test kids too much, so if you have national tests, which tests are you going to take away?' "

11/12/97;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1800+0+wAAA+%26%28White%26House,%26GOP%26Craft%26Agreement%26On%26Testing%29%26AND%26%28White%26House,%26GOP%26Craft%26Agreement%26On%26Testing%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28White%26House,%26GOP%26Craft%26

• President Clinton and congressional Republicans neared a compromise last week that will delay a final verdict on the proposed national testing plan until next year, while allowing the Department of Education to make minor progress on the plan, one of Mr. Clinton's top domestic priorities. In the outline of a hard-fought compromise, House Republicans backed away from their demand that all testing preparations stop, and the administration agreed to slow an ambitious schedule that would have put the tests in front of students in the spring of 1999.

11/09/97; The Washington Post; Page C01
By Jay Gillen

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/09/113l-110997-idx.html

• If every American child were guaranteed an annual income of $50,000 from age 21 to retirement, few parents would demand test results as a way of knowing how well their children were doing in school. And fewer still would be wringing their hands during conferences in my classroom; they would be enjoying their child's growing knowledge instead. The desire for more testing is directly related to the concern that many parents feel about their children's future. This is not the only reason why many parents support testing, but it is a prominent one -- and one that skillful politicians are quick to understand.

11/08/97; The Detroit News
By Sam Fulwood III / Los Angeles Times

http://detnews.com:80/1997/nation/9711/08/11080066.htm

• WASHINGTON -- After weeks of wrangling over the merits of national education testing, the House voted Friday to accept a compromise that will delay President Clinton's proposal to assess the reading and math skills of all American schoolchildren. The 352-65 vote ended a political battle of wills that repeatedly blocked passage of an $80 billion appropriation for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Opponents of Clinton's plan wanted to attach a provision to the bill to bar development of the tests.

11/06/97; The Washington Post; Page A12
By Eric Pianin and Rene Sanchez

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-11/06/119l-110697-idx.html

• Prospects for adjournment abruptly gathered steam yesterday, after Clinton and Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, reached a tentative compromise at the White House over school testing -- one that would enable both sides to claim a partial victory. That core issue now will not be resolved apparently until the National Academy of Sciences, a nonpartisan group, studies whether the tests that many states use to judge student performance can be linked into a rough national standard for subjects such as reading and math. The academy's study must be completed by June.

11/05/97; Reuters
By Sue Kirchhoff

http://nt.excite.com:80/reuters/971105/14.POLITICS-EDUCATION.html

• House Education Committee Chairman Bill Goodling said Wednesday that he reached a tentative deal with the White House on national education tests, a thorny issue blocking action on a must-pass spending bill. Goodling, the chief opponent of President Clinton's plan to test fourth graders in reading and eighth graders in math, said he worked out a compromise that would bar field testing of the exams. "I think we've reached an agreement that everybody will be happy with," Goodling, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters after a meeting at the White House.

11/05/97;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1744+0+wAAA+%26%28Latest%26Testing%26Compromise%26Appears%26Doomed%29%26AND%26%28Latest%26Testing%26Compromise%26Appears%26Doomed%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28Latest%26Testing%26Compromise%26Appears%26Doo

• After eight days of intense negotiations, President Clinton's national testing proposal last week was no closer to being launched--or discarded. Last week, House and Senate leaders brokered a deal acceptable to enough Democrats to lead them to believe they could push it through Congress and send it to Mr. Clinton. But, by Friday morning, opposition by conservative Republicans grew so intense that the House GOP met to discuss an alternative written by testing's most outspoken foe, Rep. Bill Goodling, R-Pa. Neither the original compromise nor the last-minute Republican plan, however, is likely to gain the support of the Clinton administration or its Democratic supporters in the Senate.

11/02/97; The LA Times

http://www.latimes.com:80/CNS_DAYS/971102/t000098837.html

• Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on Saturday branded President Clinton's plan for national testing "the educational equivalent of an IRS for the classroom. Most parents--and I count myself among them--do not want agents of the federal government devising those tests, making all students take them, or passing judgment on the results," Lott said.

10/31/97; The Washington Post; Page A16
By Eric Pianin

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-10/31/152l-103197-idx.html

• A compromise over national school testing negotiated by House and Senateleaders and appropriators crumbled yesterday after encountering powerful resistance from conservative Republicans and other critics of testing. But the plan drew sharp criticism from the White House almost immediately and sparked an uproar yesterday among House conservatives who charged House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other leaders with selling them out on an important issue in a rush to resolve the dispute and avert a showdown with the administration.

                                  
                                   
10/31/97; Reuters
By Sue Kirchhoff

http://nt.excite.com:80/reuters/971031/18.POLITICS-EDUCATION.html

• WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Republican leaders Friday barred action on President Clinton's controversial plan for national math and reading tests as they struggled to resolve a bitter intraparty battle over the issue. Facing a conservative rebellion, Speaker Newt Gingrich backed away from a compromise spending bill that would have let the administration develop the voluntary tests, but required Congress to pass a separate law allowing their use.

10/30/97; Page A20
By Eric Pianin

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-10/30/200l-103097-idx.html

• House and Senate negotiators tentatively agreed last night to a compromise that would allow the Clinton administration to go forward with its plans to develop national educational tests for reading and math, while still leaving room for the program to be blocked down the road.

10/29/97; Philadelphia Inquirer

http://www.phillynews.com:80/inquirer/97/Oct/29/national/EDUC29.htm

• Clinton endorsed a pioneering program under which Chicago has tested tens of thousands of students for promotion and held back unprecedented numbers who failed to meet academic standards. At the same time, Clinton directed the Education Department to help other school districts replicate another cornerstone of the Chicago reform: aggressive intervention by local school officials to seize control of failing schools.

10/29/97;  Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/current/09test.h17

• Gridlock eased long enough for President Clinton's reading initiative to inch toward passage last week, but it kept a grip on his national testing plan. The House Education and the Workforce Committee passed a reading bill that included much of what Mr. Clinton proposed earlier this year and attracted conditional Democratic support. Meanwhile, Congress extended the deadline for voting on the administration's national test plan until Nov. 7, and a legislative impasse on testing and other issues tied to annual appropriations bills continued.

10/29/97: The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/sbin/my_iarecord.pl?NS-doc-path=/CNS_DAYS/971029/t000097325.html&NS-doc-offset=17&NS-collection=971029&NS-search-set=/var/tmp/34574/aaaa005o65741cd&

• While visiting Chicago Public Schools, Clinton encouraged the nation to follow Chicago's lead in the education reform movemnt. Clinton supports the end of social promotion, standardized testing programs and local intervention at failing schools. The controversy over school reform continues as House and Senate leaders work on drafting funding legislation for the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services.

10/28/97; Reuters

http://nt.excite.com:80/reuters/971028/14.NEWS-EDUCATION.html

• CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Clinton said Tuesday students who fall short of academic standards should not be promoted and said the U.S. government will help state and local authorities revive underperforming public schools. Speaking at the Oscar Mayer Elementary School, Clinton praised Chicago's efforts in reviving an ailing school system. "I want what is happening in Chicago to happen all over America," Clinton said.

10/25/97; LA Times

http://www.latimes.com:80/CNS_DAYS/971025/t000095990.html

• "If there's any attempt in Congress to kill this effort at national standards and voluntary testing, I will have to veto it," Clinton told teachers who were visiting the White House. Republicans, he said, "are ready to raise the white flag and abandon public schools." Sparring between the White House and Congress over education has intensified. House Republicans have passed bills that would use direct federal spending or tax breaks to pay for private and public schools. And they have rejected Clinton's call for an army of volunteer reading tutors.

10/25/97;
By Robert Greene / AP Education Writer

http://detnews.com:80/1997/nation/9710/25/10250023.htm

• House and Senate Republican leaders agreed Friday to block President Clinton's national education tests but agreed to study an alternative way for children to learn how they are doing in reading and math.

10/24/97;WASHINGTON (Reuters)

http://nt.excite.com:80/reuters/971024/18.POLITICS-EDUCATION.html

• Congressional Republican leaders Friday moved toward a deal to delay or block funding for President Clinton's proposed math and reading tests, escalating an already hot battle with the White House.

10/22/97; Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/ew/current/08title.h17

• The Department of Education has told states that they would be able to use President Clinton's proposed national tests to help fulfill federal testing requirements for the Title I program. But congressional critics and some Title I experts say the department's stance is inconsistent with existing policies and is an aggressive attempt to promote the testing program. At issue is whether the proposed voluntary tests of 4th grade reading and 8th grade math would square with key 1994 revisions to Title I proposed by the Clinton administration and approved by the then-Democrat-led Congress. Those changes seek to hold the disadvantaged children served by the program to high academic standards.

10/22/97;  Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/nation/97/10/22/literacy.2-0.html

• Trying to divert attention from Congress' opposition to his education plan, President Clinton read a book with a little girl Tuesday to show that volunteer tutoring called for under the plan is working. Tuesday's reading event was one of several Clinton was holding this week to push his education agenda, which includes linking more schools to the Internet and establishing uniform tests for measuring reading and math skills of fourth- and eighth-graders.

10/22/97; Yahoo News service

http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/971022/politics/stories/education_1.html

• House lawmakers are expected to hold a hearing Wednesday on President Clinton's plan to train reading tutors. William Goodling, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, had threatened to delay the legislation to gain leverage in his fight against Clinton's plan for voluntary math and reading tests. Goodling pulled the reading bill from a scheduled markup ten days ago, but Tuesday announced he had reversed course and would take up a literacy measure on Wednesday.

10/21/97; The Washington Times

• Mr. Clinton has vowed to veto the appropriations bill for the Education and Labor departments if it does not include funding for the tests. Mr. Riley said national tests will help show how far American students are behind foreign children in math and language subjects. He said the administration has no hidden agenda for the test results, but the president does want to shock schools with poor test results into taking measures to improve.

10/21/97; The Washington Post; Page A08

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-10/21/074l-102197-idx.html

• The testing plan in particular has run into fierce opposition among GOP lawmakers, who complain it would duplicate standardized tests already given to students and amount to an unwarranted federal intrusion into local authority over education. Some liberal Democrats are also wary because, they say, poor schools that lack resources to prepare students would be at a disadvantage. The literacy project has generated less vocal criticism but has been bottled up in a House committee by Republicans looking for leverage in the battle over the testing plan.

10/20/97; The Philadelphia Inquirer

http://www.phillynews.com:80/inquirer/97/Oct/20/national/READ20.htm

• Clinton has vowed to veto any bill that delays or abolishes the voluntary tests, which have not yet been created. The House voted last month to ban the tests from being used. The Senate has approved a modified version of Clinton's plan. The two sides will meet soon to resolve their differences on the subject, which also is dividing educators nationwide.

10/19/97; The Washington Post; Page A08

http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-10/19/163l-101997-idx.html

• The campaign that congressional Republicans are leading against President Clinton's plan to give students national tests is jeopardizing another priority on his education agenda, the $2.7 billion he wants to spend helping children learn to read. In a move that has infuriated the White House, Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.), the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, has halted legislative work on Clinton's reading plan in an attempt to gain more leverage to stop national testing. Clinton has vowed to veto any bill that delays or abolishes the tests, which have not yet been created but will be voluntary for states to adopt. The House voted last month to ban the tests from ever being used. The Senate has approved a modified version of Clinton's plan. The two sides will meet soon to resolve their differences on the subject, which is also dividing educators nationwide.

10/18/97; Universal Press

http://biz.yahoo.com/upi/97/10/18/washington_dateline_general_news/usclinton_1.html

• Winding up his week-long Latin American swing, President Clinton says he expects to plunge into a ``vital and vigorous debate'' over how to improve public schools when he gets back to Washington. Clinton said his strategy is to set high standards, measure student performance against them, inject more competition and choice into the public school system, and support local initiatives that increase order, safety and learning.

10/15/97; Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1634+0+wAAA+%26%28gop%26plays%26hardball%29%26AND%26%28gop%26plays%26hardball%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28gop%26plays%26hardball%29

• The two sides in the national testing debate spent more time and energy last week fighting each other than seeking a compromise. In the Senate, Republicans rallied to the campaign by Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., to stop President Clinton's testing plan on any terms. That essentially was the position adopted by the House last month, a few days after the Senate voted to allow the new tests to proceed but to put their development in the hands of an independent review panel. Both votes were by large, bipartisan majorities. Thirty-five GOP senators now say they will try to block any testing initiative that might be included in a House-Senate compromise.

10/09/97; Company Press Release

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/97/10/09/y0009_5.html

• ``We commend Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) and Rep. Bill Goodling (R-Pa.) for engaging President Clinton in a debate over the consequences of federal tests. The president's desire to leave a legacy in education is not sufficient reason to create federal tests that would have profound negative ramifications on American education.

10/07/97; USA Today

• Teachers and principals fear the nation's growing preoccupation with testing is affecting the classroom in a way that legislators and policymakers may never have intended. With the stakes higher now because of the demands for improved performance by U.S. schools, educators rue the class time spent gearing students up for the tests, the way results can be misconstrued by the media and the anxiety generated among students.

10/07/97; Education Week On the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1567+0+wAAA+%26%28parties%26take%26up%26new%26%29%26AND%26%28parties%26take%26up%26new%26%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28parties%26take%26up%26new%26%29

• For two years, Republicans and Democrats debated whether there should be a federal Department of Education. Now the two sides are embroiled in a fight over exactly what the department can and should be doing. Their debate is focused on three issues: national testing, which is being championed by the Clinton administration, and block grants and private school choice, both backed primarily by Republicans. Each side is using public relations and legislative threats to insist that its philosophy prevail.

10/06/97; Yahoo news service

http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/971006/politics/stories/education_1.html

• Opinion polls show voters think improving the nation's schools should be a main priority. A recent Wall Street Journal survey found education topped crime and the economy as the public's primary concern for Congress. There will be three issues in the next campaign -- education, education, education," said Mary Elizabeth Teasley of the National Education Association, the powerful teachers' union, pointing to a long list of bills on everything from national tests to block grants.

10/01/97; Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1556+0+wAAA+%26%28riley%26delays%26national%26tests%29%26AND%26%28riley%26delays%26national%26tests%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28riley%26delays%26national%26tests%29

• As support for new national student tests continued to erode last week, the Department of Education temporarily stopped work on the project that is one of President Clinton's top domestic-policy priorities. In a one-page statement, Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley announced he was halting the development of the proposed voluntary tests in reading for 4th graders and math for 8th graders. The decision was made in concert with the White House, officials said. The Sept. 25 statement specifically pointed to a conflict over the use of calculators in the math test. It made no mention, however, of the most contentious issue--the decision to administer the reading test only in English--which has angered many urban officials and prompted several districts to drop plans to give the reading test.

10/01/97; Education Week On the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1539+0+wAAA+%26%28new%26alliance%26endeavors%26to%26put%26schools%26first%29%26AND%26%28new%26alliance%26endeavors%26to%26put%26schools%26first%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28new%26alliance%26endeavors%26to

• The leaders of 12 education organizations, most of them based [in Washington], are putting aside their past differences and forming a new coalition to focus on raising student achievement and boosting support for public schools. instead of lobbying for more education funding from Congress, the Learning First Alliance--which will include the two national teachers' unions, groups representing school administrators, the National School Boards Association, and the National PTA--will focus most of its energy on getting members of local affiliates to collaborate. An issue the organization will address as a group will be the National Voluntary Test.

09/24/97; Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1523+0+wAAA+%26%28Compromise%26is%26Next%26Step%26in%26Test%26Odyssey%29%26AND%26%28Compromise%26is%26Next%26Step%26in%26Test%26Odyssey%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28Compromise%26is%26Next%26Step%26in%26Te

• As Clinton continues to push for an aggressive schedule for the Voluntary National Test, members of the House and Senate must attempt to reconcile differences and reach a common ground. Both Republicans and Democrats find fault with the test, some even going so far as to say that they will go to extreme measures to keep the legislation from being passed.

09/21/97; LA Times

• President Clinton has threatened to veto a large piece of funding legislation for education and labor programs unless it is amended to provide for his national testing plan and other educational reforms of which he is a proponent. Clinton is opposed to the Senate's move to consolidate funding for many programs, including charter schools, into block grants for states. The House has voted to block funding for the national tests due to combined conservative and liberal concerns. Before the legislative package reaches Clinton, the House and the Senate versions must be reconciled and it is currently unclear where the issues testing and the block grants will fall.

09/21/97; Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/21/clintoneduca.3-0.html

• In an address to parents and students of a San Carlos, California charter school, President Clinton announced he would veto any bill that blocked his school programs. He also took the opportunity to chastise members of the House who continue to block the proposal for a National Voluntary Test. In related news, Clinton also announced a 40 million dollar grant to help subsidize the creation of new charter schools across the country.

09/17/97; Education Week on the Web

http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1997+1483+0+wAAA+%26%28senate%26and%26national%26test%29%26AND%26%28senate%26and%26national%26test%29%3AKEYWORDS%26OR%26%28senate%26and%26national%26test%29

• The senate voted this week to pass Clinton's National Voluntary Test, while efforts are still stalled in the House. The control of the test oversight would be passed from the Department of Education to a nonpartisan organization. The House delayed its vote on a testing amendment until this week.

09/16/97; Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/17/congress.2-0.html

• The House rejected President Clinton's controversial plan for nationaleducation testing standards Tuesday, setting up a major battle with the Senate, which last week passed a compromise plan relying on voluntary participation. House opponents, who prevailed, 295-125, argued that the plan would trample states' rights and further isolate poor and minority school districts already lagging in achievement levels.

09/15/97; Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/metropolitan/97/09/15/testing.2-1.html

• Houston I.S.D. Superintendent Rod Paige reports that he will recommend his district only take part in the math portion of the National Voluntary Test. He explains the decision to produce the exam only in English excludes "from the benefits of the program many of the nearly 300,000 fourth-graders from the 15 cities that have volunteered to take the national tests." Although still supportive of the idea of national testing, Paige argues that the report should be about accountability, not unfair bias. Other large urban districts such as Los Angeles have already made similar decisions regarding the reading test.

9/11/1997; Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/12/testing.2-0.html

• The Senate breathed new life Thursday into President Clinton's plan to establish national education testing standards by approving a modified version that will be administered by an independent board. The plan, which will likely be rejected by the House next week, passed the Senate 87-13, drawing surprising support from both Democrats and Republicans. Supporters of testing said they believe that national reading and math score standards will give parents another tool to hold local school systems accountable.

09/11/97; Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/11/education.2-0.html

• Clinton's proposal for a National Voluntary Test has been stalled by members of the House of Representatives. With Conservatives arguing the plan would "increase federal interference in local school matters" and liberals seeing it as "a tool that could be used in the wrong way to compare performances between poor and rich school districts or as a factor in deciding whether students pass or fail," defeat seems certain. The Senate, however, continues to attempt to include at least a modified version of Clinton's proposal in the upcoming vote.

9/9/1997; Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/10/education.2-0.html

• House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., continued to oppose Clinton's call for a national test for fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math skills, saying that it would impose "Washington standards" on local schools. In testimony before a House education subcommittee, he called instead for passage of legislation that would provide tax breaks and federal vouchers to parents who choose to take their children out of public schools and place them in private institutions.

9/3/1997; Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/cgi-bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/nation/97/09/04/clinton-testing.2-0.html

• EDGARTOWN, Mass. -- President Clinton defended his national student performance testing plan Wednesday, charging Congress would make a "terrible mistake" to scrap it. The president interrupted his vacation to visit a school in nearby Oak Bluffs, where he urged teachers to "send a clear message that you believe that excellence and accountability and high aspirations are for all of our children."

02/27/97; The Houston Chronicle Interactive

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/nation/97/02/28/math.2-0.html

• President Clinton seized on the results to push for voluntary tests of all eighth-graders starting in 1999

Websites covering Voluntary National Testing

National Education Goals Panel Plan for a Goals 3-4-5 Standards Implementation Advisory Committee

http://www.negp.gov/standards.htm

• The Goals Panel plans to cooperate in a sustained effort with the participating organizations to implement one or more of the policy recommendations that arise from this process.

U.S. Government Home Page for Voluntary National Test Information

http://www.ed.gov/nationaltests

• In his State of the Union Address on February 4,1997, the President named education as his "number one priority for the next four years." He also issued a callto action -- a 10-point plan -- for ensuring that Americans have the best education inthe world.

ERIC Resources on Voluntary National Testing

http://www.ericae.net/ft/nattest/

• A link to the ERIC site devoted to the examination of National Voluntary Testing

Third International Math and Science Study Home Page

http://wwwcsteep.bc.edu/timss

• A link to the website of the Third International Math and Science Study, one of the tests upon which the new voluntary national tests will be based.

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