In an open letter to National Assessment of Educational Progress board members, University of Virginia professor and author E.D. Hirsch Jr. requests they not approve the proposed replacement of the NAEP’s reading comprehension assessment, going as far to say “it is hard to imagine any positive result from this innovation.”
“It would not accurately report reading comprehension ability,” Hirsch writes in his letter, published by Education Week. “It would not accurately expose the unfair gaps in reading between groups — gaps that we know how to close, that schools should be encouraged to close, and that their customers, the parents and guardians of these children, wish them to close to improve their life chances.”
Read his full letter here.