Rethinking Testing: Recent
Studies Discuss Student Assessments
A number of recently
released studies and reports have called for or discussed change in
standards-based assessments. The Center
on Education Policy's October issue of Test Talk discusses
"What Tests Can and Cannot Tell Us," while a November 20, 2002 article
in Education Week reports
on a trend of "value added" analyses of testing data. Achieve,
Inc., a bipartisan group of governors and business leaders founded
at the National Education Summit in 1996 to promote student standards
and increased performance, has released a report. "Staying on Course"
details the promises and problems of standards-based reform and assessments
"from state houses to schoolhouses."
Test Talk's
report,
an "action summary for leaders," aims to tell teachers, administrators,
lawmakers, and interested members of the public about the strengths
and limitations of tests. Strengths include efficiency, cost-effectiveness,
and reporting of general information, while weaknesses include margin
of error, volatility, and the dangers of "teaching to the test." Education
Week's article
describes pilot projects in Tennessee, Colorado, Ohio, and Pennsylvania
in which schools and teachers have, or shortly will have, more than
just raw test data. Progress by individual students over time is analyzed,
and this gives schools a picture of how much they "add value" to each
student's knowledge and skills. Achieve's report
expresses cautious satisfaction with how much the standards-based reform
movement has accomplished so far but warns that too many tests, lack
of a national standard of proficiency, and waning support of teachers
and parents must be addressed if gains are to continue.
Prepared November
20, 2002
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