The National Academies Press

Currently Skimming:

DEVELOPING ASSESSMENTS ALIGNED WITH STANDARDS
Pages 9-14

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.

From page 9... ... Although some reform advocates warn that an over cautious requirement of scientific rigor will delay implementation and progress, work' shop participants generally agreed that a consensus is growing for careful attention to the scientific and technological bases for assessments in their various applications. How should states approach the task of developing new assessments? Read the entire page →
From page 10... ... Discussants noted that some potential pitfalls could be avoided if standard~setting groups considered assessment issues at the same time they developed content and performance standards: standards would be less likely to be built around unrealistic assumptions about what assessment technology can deliver, and federal and state governments would be less likely to attach high stakes to assessments before they were technically readyor at least would be more aware of the consequences if they did. In developing assessments, states would be well advised to initiate an open dialogue about the broader social and policy implications of assessment, including appropriate test use, appropriate reporting and interpretation of results, impacts on various groups of students by race, ethnicity, gender, and socioe' conomic background, effects on instruction, costs and benefits 0 0 0 0 of new assessments, and teacher professional development needs emanating from new standards and related assessment formats. Read the entire page →
From page 11... ... Other problems in Vermont with national implications include difficulty in trainina large nilmhers of rnter.s to ~ level of .silfficient accuracy, ~ lack of.st~nc3nrcliz~ tion of performance tasks, and the limited ability to generalize about student knowledge from a small number of tasks. The Vermont experience suggests that the twin goals of new assessments to improve instruction and to yield high-quaTity comparative data may not be totally reconcilable. Read the entire page →
From page 12... ... in terms of the following tension that needs to be understood by policy makers: comparison across students or schools requires standardization, whereas improved learning for all students may require less standardization and the capacity to accommodate to specific learning needs that vary within and across ciassrooms.6 The Vermont experience affirms the wisdom of having modest expectations, evaluating the planned assessments, and allowing for a Tong experimentation period, luxuries that may not always be available. Technical Questions As indicated by the Vermont experience, a variety of technical issues-not the least of which are reliability and vaTidi~should be the subject of extensive research. Read the entire page →
From page 13... ... Whatever the approach, it is likely tO require a substantial public ir~fott~ation effort tO help parents, the media, and others understand new test scoring and reporting methods. Other topics for additional technical research include approaches for assessing linguistic minorities; procedures for aggregating results across schools, districts, states, the nation, and even the globe; and interim policies for moving from current testing modes to new methods. Read the entire page →
From page 14... ... For example, "teaching to the test" means that teachers focus their lessons so as to raise the chances that their students will answer anticipated test items correctly, which can result in inflated test scores but not necessarily in increased learning of the underlying content or domain from which the test is meant to sample. Read the entire page →

From page 9...

... Although some reform advocates warn that an over cautious requirement of scientific rigor will delay implementation and progress, work' shop participants generally agreed that a consensus is growing for careful attention to the scientific and technological bases for assessments in their various applications. How should states approach the task of developing new assessments?

Read the entire page →

From page 10...

... Discussants noted that some potential pitfalls could be avoided if standard~setting groups considered assessment issues at the same time they developed content and performance standards: standards would be less likely to be built around unrealistic assumptions about what assessment technology can deliver, and federal and state governments would be less likely to attach high stakes to assessments before they were technically readyor at least would be more aware of the consequences if they did. In developing assessments, states would be well advised to initiate an open dialogue about the broader social and policy implications of assessment, including appropriate test use, appropriate reporting and interpretation of results, impacts on various groups of students by race, ethnicity, gender, and socioe' conomic background, effects on instruction, costs and benefits 0 0 0 0 of new assessments, and teacher professional development needs emanating from new standards and related assessment formats.

Read the entire page →

From page 11...

... Other problems in Vermont with national implications include difficulty in trainina large nilmhers of rnter.s to ~ level of .silfficient accuracy, ~ lack of.st~nc3nrcliz~ tion of performance tasks, and the limited ability to generalize about student knowledge from a small number of tasks. The Vermont experience suggests that the twin goals of new assessments to improve instruction and to yield high-quaTity comparative data may not be totally reconcilable.

Read the entire page →

From page 12...

... in terms of the following tension that needs to be understood by policy makers: comparison across students or schools requires standardization, whereas improved learning for all students may require less standardization and the capacity to accommodate to specific learning needs that vary within and across ciassrooms.6 The Vermont experience affirms the wisdom of having modest expectations, evaluating the planned assessments, and allowing for a Tong experimentation period, luxuries that may not always be available. Technical Questions As indicated by the Vermont experience, a variety of technical issues-not the least of which are reliability and vaTidi~should be the subject of extensive research.

Read the entire page →

From page 13...

... Whatever the approach, it is likely tO require a substantial public ir~fott~ation effort tO help parents, the media, and others understand new test scoring and reporting methods. Other topics for additional technical research include approaches for assessing linguistic minorities; procedures for aggregating results across schools, districts, states, the nation, and even the globe; and interim policies for moving from current testing modes to new methods.

Read the entire page →

From page 14...

... For example, "teaching to the test" means that teachers focus their lessons so as to raise the chances that their students will answer anticipated test items correctly, which can result in inflated test scores but not necessarily in increased learning of the underlying content or domain from which the test is meant to sample.

Read the entire page →

← Previous Chapter Skim

Next Chapter Skim →

This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.

DEVELOPING ASSESSMENTS ALIGNED WITH STANDARDS Pages 9-14

DEVELOPING ASSESSMENTS ALIGNED WITH STANDARDS
Pages 9-14