Not much is known about the ways in which assessment data have actually been used in education policy to date. Understanding the role of assessments in informing system-level decision-making is a first step towards helping stakeholders improve the design and usefulness of assessments. Moreover, this understanding can help to further discussions…

Examined the effect of a form of high-stakes testing, milepost testing, in which tests are only given at selected grade levels. Data from 479 teachers in Kentucky show substantial differences in practice between tested and nontested grades and draws implications for national testing proposals. (SLD)

This digest presents eight questions that pertain to how standards-based education affects classroom instruction and assessment at the local level. Various options and recommendations are provided to help education officials determine the practical concerns of standards-based education. The following questions are explored: (1) where will the…

Kentucky has been implementing test-based accountability for almost a decade, making it a good site for studying the effects of the milepost testing model. In 1996, a study was undertaken of the impact of standards-based assessment on classroom practices in Kentucky. Kentucky teachers (n=365) were surveyed about their classroom practices and other…

No one can dispute that tests should measure important content, and for many (but not all) purposes, tests should be aligned with curricular goals. Thus in many cases, alignment is clearly better than the alternative, and nothing that follows here argues otherwise. Unfortunately, however, this does not imply that alignment is sufficient protection…

This article examines one of the challenges to the integration of classroom and large-scale portfolio assessment, a challenge posed by the use of a student's classroom portfolio for large-scale assessment of his or her individual competencies. When work is composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents, whose work is being judged? The…

Despite the many limitations of standardized tests, schools use them to determine if children are ready for school, to group students for instruction, to diagnose learning disabilities and other handicaps, and to guide and control the curriculum and teaching methods. No test is good enough to serve as the sole or primary basis for important…

Detailed evidence is presented about the extent of generalization from high-stakes tests to other tests and about the instructional effects of high-stakes testing. Data are from grade 3 of a large, high-poverty urban district with large numbers of Black and Hispanic American students. The district's results in 1990 for two tests, designated Test B…

Rather than providing an anthology of tests and assessment techniques, this book focuses on academic success and its maintenance and the role of testing. The discussion opens with a consideration of the relationship between assessment and curriculum. It is important to consider carefully what it is we want to teach, and it is equally important to…