Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families Hearing on “Authorization of the National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, and National Assessment Governing Board May 11, 2000 2175 Rayburn House Office Building The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:06 a.m., in Room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Michael N. Castle [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. Present: Representatives Castle, Schaffer, Kildee, Kucinich, and Wu. Staff present: Linda Castleman, Office Manager; Pam Davidson, Legislative Assistant; Vic Klatt, Education Policy Coordinator; Patrick Lyden, Professional Staff Member; Michael Reynard, Media Assistant; Bob Sweet, Professional Staff Member; Kent Talbert, Professional Staff Member; Christie Wolf, Professional Staff Member; June Harris, Minority Education Coordinator; Alex Nock, Legislative Associate/Education; and Roxana Folescu, Staff Assistant/Education. Chairman Castle. A quorum being present, thanks to the wonderful gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Kucinich, who has joined us, the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families will come to order. Let me just take a moment to explain what is happening right now on the House floor. We will have a series of votes that are rolled over from last night. Congress was in session until well after midnight yesterday, and we will have to go vote after the oneminute speeches. They are taking place right now, so we are going to be called away here shortly. I think we should get started before we are called away. We probably won't get to your statements until we return from voting. I will give my opening statement. If Mr. Kucinich has one he is more than welcome to give it, or we can wait for Mr. Kildee to arrive. After our opening statements I think we should be free to proceed with the rest of the hearing. The House is rolling votes, so we should be okay after this first series of votes. We are holding this hearing today to hear testimony on the National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, and National Assessment Governing Board. Under Committee Rule 12(b), opening statements are limited to the chairman and the ranking minority member of the subcommittee. This allows us to hear from the witnesses under the normal five-minute rule and to ask questions under our five-minute rule. With that, I ask unanimous consent for the hearing record to remain open for 14 days to allow members' statements and other documents referenced during the hearing to be submitted to the official hearing record. I will begin with my opening statement. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN MICHAEL CASTLE, It is a pleasure to welcome all of you here to our hearing today on the reauthorization of the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as NAEP, and the National Assessment Governing Board, known as NAGB. As many of you know, NAEP and NAGB were reauthorized as part of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994, but their authority has since expired. Today they continue to exist only by virtue of the appropriations process. For this reason, I am particularly interested in producing legislation this year. As a former governor and a former member of the NAGB Board, I want to ensure that our efforts reflect sound policy that is both workable and beneficial for the people of this country. From its origin in the early 1970s, NAEP has continued to evolve. Initially it was a long-term trend test. Then in the late 1980s and early 1990s, NAGB was created to establish policy guidelines and NAEP was expanded to include State NAEP assessments, whereby states could see how their state performed relative to other states. About this same time, more subjects were added to NAEP, and we now have NAEP tests in reading, writing, math, science, civics, history, geography, foreign languages, economics and the arts. Today, NAEP is best known as the "Nation's Report Card," and most students and teachers recognize it as a series of nationwide tests on academic performance in grades 4, 8, and 12. Before we hear from our witnesses, I would like to point out a few facts. First, the purpose of NAEP is to provide a fair and accurate presentation of educational achievement in reading, writing, and the other subjects, regarding student achievement and citizenship. We need to be ever mindful of this purpose. As we begin the reauthorization process, there are many issues that we will need to consider. Just a few of them include: One, Independence. NAGB is semiindependent now, but we should seriously consider whether it should be completely independent of the department. Two, scope of NAEP. We also should consider whether our schools and students would be better served if NAEP were to be more focused on core subject areas such as reading, writing, math and science. Three, high stakes NAEP. The administration has a proposal to make NAEP a high stakes test. That is, achievement gains on NAEP could result in rewards or sanctions. We should carefully consider if this is the correct policy. Finally, four, too much testing. Many parents, teachers and administrators complain that too many standardized tests take time away from regular classroom learning. We should consider the extent to which this is a problem, and what role it plays in the decision of states and school districts to drop out of NAEP, some of which we have been reading about in the news recently. Now, I obviously do not have all the answers to these questions, but I am hopeful that our witnesses can shed some light on these issues. Again, I would like to thank you for joining us, and I will now turn to Mr. Kucinich for an opening statement. See Appendix A for the Opening Statement of Chairman Michael Castle Mr. Kucinich. Thank you very much. I know Mr. Kildee will want his statement included in the record. I think it is important that we have these hearings to do an assessment of those who are doing assessments, and to also reflect on a larger question: Are we becoming a nation of test takers? Are we becoming a nation that puts more emphasis on quantitative assessments as opposed to trying to elevate the qualitative performance of our students? Thank you. Chairman Castle. Thank you very much, Dennis. I think at this point it would be best to break. We have short introductions but we will do it when we return, so it will be fresh in people's minds exactly who you are. We all know who "Checker" Finn is, but exactly who everybody else who is here with us today. We will then proceed with your statements, and as I said earlier, I think at that point we won't be interrupted again, and I apologize to you now for this current interruption. Unfortunately, the presence of business on the House floor does dominate, so this will be probably literally at least a 40-minute, maybe even a 50-minute break before we resume. So, with that, we stand in recess. [Recess.] Chairman Castle. We will now reconvene our hearing. Again, I apologize for the delay. The good news is that there should be no more delays before we are able to finish We are pleased that Mr. Kildee has also joined us. He has a statement that he may wish to make. Mr. Kildee. I will submit it for the record. I want to hear from the witnesses. See Appendix B for the Opening Statement of Representative Dale K. Kildee Chairman Castle. Very good. We will turn to the witnesses, then, and I think they are familiar to most of the people in this room, and most of them have been through the hearing process before at some time or another. We will take your extensive bios and reduce them to just a small little essence of who you are. The first witness is Mr. Mark Musick. Mr. Musick is the chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board here in Washington, D.C., has been a board member since NAGB's creation in 1988, and has been appointed by three different Education Secretaries. Mr. Musick is president of the Southern Regional Education Board, which is the nation's first interstate compact for education, to help governmental and education leaders work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. Dr. Gary Phillips. Dr. Phillips is the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics here in Washington, D.C. He has been with NCES for 12 years, where he has also overseen the National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP; the National Adult Literacy Studies; and the Third International Math and Science Study. Dr. Phillips was also heavily involved in developing President Clinton's Voluntary National Test Initiative. Dr. Chester or “Checker" Finn. Dr. Finn is president and trustee of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation here in Washington, D.C. The Fordham Foundation supports research, publications, and action projects of national significance in elementary and secondary education reform. He is also a John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a former chairman and board member of NAGB. Dr. Finn also served as Assistant Secretary for Research and Improvement at the Department of Education during the Bush Administration. Mr. Christopher Klicka. Mr. Klicka is the senior counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association in Purcellville, Virginia. He is also the executive director of the National Center of Home Education, and has authored numerous books on home school issues. Finally is Dr. Michael Ward. Dr. Ward is the state superintendent of public schools for North Carolina Prior to this he served as the executive director of the North Carolina Standards Board for Public School Administration, and has served as the superintendent of Schools for Granville County in North Carolina. Dr. Ward has also worked as a teacher and principal, and was honored as North Carolina's Superintendent of the Year in 1994, and as Granville County's Principal of the Year in 1988. We welcome each and every one of you to this hearing today. As you probably know, we would ask that you try to limit your oral statement to five minutes. That is designated by that little clock in the center there, which has a green light on four minutes, a yellow light which indicate one minute is left, and then a red light which is a definite movement to try and end your statement. Then we will take questions from the various members on both sides of the aisle in whatever order they might arrive. I would just like to say up front that because we are dealing with reauthorization, and a reauthorization that has not happened heretofore, and because I am interested in getting that done because of my personal involvement, but more for my desire to improve both testing and the supervision of testing in this country. I personally am very interested in your specific recommendations and comments and reasons for them. I mean, it is fine to go through the history and philosophy of NAGB and NAEP, but I am very interested in the specifics of exactly what it is that we as a committee and we as a Congress should be doing to help in this area. So, with that, we will turn Mr. Musick, to you for your statement. STATEMENT OF MR. MARK D. MUSICK, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL ASSESSMENT GOVERNING BOARD, WASHINGTON, D.C. Mr. Musick. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You have my written statement. I will go directly to several points and try to address three of the four points you raised earlier. I think there are many important things that are clear about NAEP as you think about reauthorization. First, NAEP is a success. In 1969, frankly, no one paid much attention to NAEP, national, regional figures. Today it is on the front pages of newspapers with State NAEP. State NAEP is a success. You started it as a developmental program. It has moved to an operational program. You should reauthorize it as an operational program, used now in more than 40 states. The achievement levels are a success. They were controversial from the start. They have caused controversy and consternation with the most comprehensive standardsetting process in America. They are influencing states as states try to figure out the proper standards. You should reauthorize the achievement levels. We believe that the achievement |