Describes project that provided technical assistance to elementary and secondary teachers at six sites while collecting data on problems encountered and educators' evolving concepts of alternative assessment. Key difficulties in understanding were teachers' focus on classroom activities rather than student goals, uncertainty about specifying…

Recent incorporation of a performance assessment in Arizona's test mandate provides an opportunity to examine the assumptions and beliefs underlying measurement-driven reform. Efforts to meld cognitive-constructivist beliefs about pupil learning and assessment contradict behaviorist beliefs about changing teachers and reforming schools. Mandates…