Assessment Reform: Challenges and Opportunities. Fastback 377 (original) (raw)
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Some Comments on Assessment in U.S. Education
education policy analysis archives, 1998
We do not know much about what assessment has accomplished but we know it has not brought about the reform of American Education. The costs and benefits of large scale mandated achievement testing are too complex to be persuasively reported. Therefore, educational policy needs to be based more on deliberated interpretations of assessment, experience, and ideology. Evaluation of assessment consequences, however inconclusive, has an important role to play in the deliberations.
Conley, D. (2015). A new era for educational assessment. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(8).
In this article, David Conley focuses on how to assess meaningful learning in ways that promote student achievement while simultaneously meeting system accountability needs. The article draws upon research that supports the notion that a major shift in educational assessment is needed in order to encourage and evaluate the kind of learning that enables success in college and careers. Over the next several years, almost every state will either implement the Common Core State Standards or develop an alternative version of their own. The question worth posing is whether educational stakeholders should be satisfied with on- demand tests that measure only a subset of the standards, or will they demand something more like a system of assessments in which multiple measures result in deeper insight into student mastery of complex and cognitive challenging standards? This article presents a vision for a new system of assessments, one designed to support the kinds of ambitious teaching and learning that most parents say they want for their children. The article begins with a brief historical overview, describes where educational assessment appears to be headed in the near term, and then discusses some longer-term possibilities, concluding with a series of recommendations for how policymakers and practitioners can move toward a better model of assessment for teaching and learning.
A New Era for Educational Assessment
Education Policy Analysis Archives, 2015
In this article, David Conley focuses on how to assess meaningful learning in ways that promote student achievement while simultaneously meeting system accountability needs. The article draws upon research that supports the notion that a major shift in educational assessment is needed in order to encourage and evaluate the kind of learning that enables success in college and careers. Over the next several years, almost every state will either implement the Common Core State Standards or develop an alternative version of their own. The question worth posing is whether educational stakeholders should be satisfied with on- demand tests that measure only a subset of the standards, or will they demand something more like a system of assessments in which multiple measures result in deeper insight into student mastery of complex and cognitive challenging standards? This article presents a vision for a new system of assessments, one designed to support the kinds of ambitious teaching and le...
New Era for Educational Assessment
In this paper, I draw upon the results from research conducted by my colleagues and me, as well as by others, to argue that the time is ripe for a major shift in educational assessment. In particular, analysis of syllabi, assignments, assessments, and student work from entry-level college courses, combined with perceptions of instructors of those courses, provides a much more detailed picture of what college and career readiness actually entails—the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that can be assessed, taught, and learned that are strongly associated with success beyond high school (Achieve, Education Trust, & Fordham Foundation 2004; ACT 2011; Conley 2003; Conley, et al. 2006; Conley & Brown 2003; EPIC 2014a; Seburn, Frain, & Conley 2013; THECB & EPIC 2009; College Board 2006). Advances in cognitive science (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking 2000; Pellegrino & Hilton 2012), combined with the development and implementation of Common Core State Standards and their attendant assessments (Conley 2014a; CCSSO & NGA 2010a, 2010b), provide states with a golden opportunity to move toward the notion of a more comprehensive system of assessments in place of a limited set of often-overlapping measures of reading and math.
Contemporary Education, 1997
Some of the reasons efforts are being made to reform education are discussed, and how these reforms are likely to affect U.S. schools is explored. Data collected annually by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) indicate that almost all states have some form of assessment that is administered to all students at one or more grade levels across the state. In addition, in 1995-96, almost all states had developed, or were in the process of developing, content standards defining what students should know and be able to do. Widespread belief that schools are not helping all students achieve at the levels they are capable of reaching has spurred reform efforts. Student assessment is at the top of the list of things to reform, since it is considered a way to set more appropriate targets for students and to focus staff development and curriculum reform. New content standards may require new assessment methods, whether short-answer, open-ended, extended-response, or other innovative forms, including performance based assessment. Some of the most severe challenges states face in implementing innovative assessment are due to the practical aspects of large-scale, statewide testing programs. Technical challenges such as scaling, reporting, generalizability, and sampling issues must also be considered. The CCSSO has undertaken activities to develop new types of assessments and to engage in research about performance assessment. Particularly promising are approaches that coordinate assessment at the state, district, and classroom levels. The CCSSO is a leader in studying this type of coordination. (Contains 14 references.) (SLD)
The Problem of High Stakes Assessment in Public Education
1997
Whether increasing reliance on policy-driven assessment for accountability and control of educational institutions is actually sabotaging long-term goals and purposes of the schools is explored, questioning whether current practices of high-stakes testing are anathema to real education values. The distinction between policy-driven assessment and instructional evaluation is described. The assumptions and purposes underlying scientific and political evaluation as opposed to those of diagnostic assessment are probed, and the work of Jennie Oakes and others is used as the basis for deriving a recommendation for valid, reliable, and appropriate assessments on both individual and institutional levels to facilitate the development of effective schools. Despite the criticism of high-stakes testing, it is not recommended that policy-driven high-stakes tests be abolished. Instead, their rational, effective, and judicious use should be the objective. Formative diagnostic methods and approaches are needed as an integral part of effective instructional programs and program development. (Contains 18 references.) (SLD)
Discovering the True Nature of Educational Assessment
2004
Testing and particularly standardized tests are increasingly identified as sources of a host of ills that afflict contemporary education. The ills have been widely catalogued and discussed (Kohn, 2000; Sacks, 1999). Testing and standardization are not, however, in themselves, the causes of these ills; to think so would be an error and a distraction, because the real problem is far deeper and more widespread. It lies in the noneducational uses of tests, an almost universal, unhealthy practice.