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Race to the Top Assessment Program: Public Hearings

Race to the Top Assessment Program: Public Hearings. Some Thoughts on Grades 3-8 and High School Assessments December 1, 2009 Denver, Colorado Presenter: Lloyd Bond, The Carnegie Foundation. Issues about which there is consensus. Intended uses Content, Formats, & Test Administration

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Race to the Top Assessment Program: Public Hearings

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  1. Race to the Top Assessment Program: Public Hearings Some Thoughts on Grades 3-8 and High School Assessments December 1, 2009 Denver, Colorado Presenter: Lloyd Bond, The Carnegie Foundation

  2. Issues about which there is consensus • Intended uses • Content, Formats, & Test Administration • Validation • Reporting

  3. Consensus Issues Intended uses • Monitoring student progress • Teacher, principal, and school accountability • College and work readiness (?) Content, Formats, & Test Administration • Multiple measures of student success • Paper & pencil, computer assisted, MC, short answer, extended response, and portfolio • Both mid-course and end-of-course assessments • Multiple opportunities and multiple ways to demonstrate mastery • (See “My Child Doesn’t Test Well” Carnegie Perspectives Web Site) • Instructionally useful information to teachers and principals

  4. Consensus Issues (cont’d) Validation • Appropriate evidence claims of content fidelity and college/work readiness (?) Reporting • Reporting of assessment information (including assessment architecture, standards, and results) to the various non-technical stakeholders should be as straightforward as possible, understandable to literate adults

  5. Thoughts on Unresolved and/or Contentious Issues • Broad & Shallow vs. Narrow & Deep • Consequential Validity - “Teaching to the Test” • The concepts of college and work “readiness” • Familiar vs.aspirational assessment

  6. Broad & Shallow vs... Narrow & Deep • The delicate balance between (1) learning a lot of things marginally and (2) learning a modest number of important things well • One of the distinguishing curricular features of countries that consistently do well on TIMMS and other assessments is that they error on the side of “(relatively) narrow and deep”

  7. Thoughts on the “what” of assessment The Grade 3-8 through High School assessments should move increasingly and continuously from: • 1) assessment of declarative knowledge to assessment of procedural and conceptual knowledge • 2) assessment of procedures and skills to assessment of problem solving and critical thinking

  8. Thoughts on Validity • Gathering evidence of content & predictive validity should be reasonably straightforward • Gathering evidence regarding consequential validity can be problematic

  9. Consequential Validity of the Assessments • Testing what is taught vs. teaching what is tested • Using the RTT assessments for accountability purposes guarantees that attempts to “teach to the test” will occur • We must therefore make the assessments worth teaching to • (See “Teaching to the Test” Carnegie Perspectives Web Site)

  10. College & Work Readiness • College and work “readiness” are as yet ill-defined and illusive concepts • “Ready” for majoring in physical education at Podunk U or ready for majoring in electrical engineering at Cat Tech • Ready for a cashier at McDonald’s or ready for office manager trainee at Merrill Lynch • It is doubtful whether a single test can serve this multiple purposes

  11. Measuring important skills and abilities • “We do not yet know how to measure all of the important things. Ergo, what we CAN measure becomes all important”

  12. Aspirational Assessments • In addition to the usual and familiar, the RTT assessment program should encourage and support consortia that also move the profession forward

  13. Toward the Assessment of “Understanding” • Students can “know” things and know how to do things without genuine understanding • “Study to remember, and you will forget; study to understand, and you will remember.” ~Anonymous • Teach for regurgitation, and students will forget; teach for understanding, and they will remember. • “The Assessment of Understanding” Carnegie Perspectives” Web Site

  14. Final Thoughts • Beware of the assessment tail wagging the content dog • Don’t reinvent the wheel. Encourage consortia to take advantage of what has already been done and what we already know (e.g., College Board Accuplacer) • Encourage involvement of higher education faculty and industry personnel in the high school assessment

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