I 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 655 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 22, 2009 Mr. Petri (for himself, Mr. Wu, Mr. Paul, Mr. Ehlers, Mr. Baird, Mr. Honda, and Mr. Castle) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To increase assessment accuracy to better measure student achievement and provide States with greater flexibility on assessment design.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Assessment Accuracy and Improvement Act.

2.

Use of adaptive assessments

Section 1111 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 is amended by adding at the end the following: (n)

Use of adaptive assessments

(1)

In general

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, a State may provide that the assessments to be used to measure student achievement by that State, and by the schools and local educational agencies of that State, shall be adaptive assessments (rather than the assessments otherwise required by this Act) that accurately assess student achievement above and below grade level while also measuring grade-level performance. (2)

Definition

For purposes of paragraph (1), an adaptive assessment is an assessment that changes its difficulty according to the performance of a student but reports the outcome of the assessment on a scale that is common to all students. (3)

Evaluation

The State shall ensure that the protocol for evaluating the adaptive assessments is included in peer review guidance documents. .