For Immediate Release
April 10, 2007
Contact: Jessica Love
Ph: 202-667-0901
Email: Jessica.Love@widmeyer.com
Important New Web Site Launched for Parents and Teachers
TestingFacts.org Provides Facts, Dispels Myths about Student Assessment
Washington, DC – Parents and educators have a new online resource for information about education testing, thanks to the School Division of the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Today the organization launched www.TestingFacts.org, a new Web site to educate the public about the importance of educational assessment and provide clear insights into the process by which students are tested.
“Testing is an essential activity that takes place in every school across the country, but the benefits of testing and the process by which tests are put together are not always clear to the general public,” said Jay Diskey, Executive Director of the AAP School Division. “It is our hope that TestingFacts.org will help parents and educators sift through the clutter and get straight to the facts about educational assessment.”
In addition to illustrating the process by which tests are developed, TestingFacts.org offers information about various kinds of standardized test formats and helpful test-taking tips for parents, students and educators. The site also offers links to organizations that engage in assessment-related work and offers answers to questions most frequently asked about testing.
Since the launch of No Child Left Behind, testing has taken on added significance across the country. The testing industry now works more closely than ever before with officials from every state to design and produce fair and accurate tests that provide educators with the information they need to help each individual student reach their true potential in the classroom. And as the importance of testing has increased, so too has the testing industry’s focus on fair test development and quality assurance practices.
“TestingFacts.org was designed to add transparency to the test development and scoring processes in which our members engage,” said AAP President and CEO Patricia Schroeder. “Our members work with every state in the nation to provide fair and accurately designed and scored tests, and we are proud of their achievements on behalf of our nation’s schools.”
TestingFacts.org is an initiative of the AAP Test Committee. The following members of the committee sponsored the new Web site: CTB/Graw-Hill; Harcourt Assessment, Inc.; Pearson Education, Inc.; Riverside Publishing Company; Data Recognition Corporation and Scholastic Testing Service, Inc.
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About the AAP School Division
The AAP School Division represents all the major U.S. publishers of textbooks and instructional materials. Members of the AAP School Division are the nation’s leading developers of educational materials, technology-based curricula and assessments. As leaders in education, School Division members create instructional solutions that help students, teachers and schools succeed. Our mission is to help improve the academic achievement of all students by designing and delivering high-quality instructional content in a variety of media.