In this paper we assert that the practice of principled assessment design renders traditional standard-setting methodology redundant at best and contradictory at worst. We describe the rationale for, and methodological details of, Embedded Standard Setting (ESS; previously, Engineered Cut Scores. Lewis, 2016), an approach to establish performance…

The objective structured practical examination (OSPE) is a reliable assessment of practical skills in anatomy teaching. It is often administered as low-stake assessments to track progress at multiple time points in anatomy curricula. Standard-setting OSPEs to derive a pass mark and to ensure assessment quality and rigor is a complex task. This…

The New Zealand Government has announced a change package in response to a recent review of the National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA). In this article, Charles Darr, a chief researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, outlines several elements of standards-based assessment that can usefully inform NCEA's…

This article provides an overview of the Hofstee standard-setting method and illustrates several situations where the Hofstee method will produce undefined cut scores. The situations where the cut scores will be undefined involve cases where the line segment derived from the Hofstee ratings does not intersect the score distribution curve based on…

Validating performance standards is challenging and complex. Because of the difficulties associated with collecting evidence related to external criteria, validity arguments rely heavily on evidence related to internal criteria--especially evidence that expert judgments are internally consistent. Given its importance, it is somewhat surprising…

California's Commission on Teacher Credentialing (Commission) requires all programs of preliminary multiple and single subject teacher preparation to use a Commission-approved Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) as one of the program completion requirements for prospective teacher candidates. Three TPA models were approved by the Commission: (1)…

The Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) is a statewide assessment system that embodies Nebraska's holistic view of students and helps them prepare for success in postsecondary education, career, and civic life. It uses multiple measures throughout the year to provide educators and decision-makers at all levels with the insights…

In order to accurately assess the English language proficiency of special populations of English learners, student assessment programs must maintain the comparability of standard and modified assessment formats, allowing for equivalent inferences to be made across student classifications. However, given the typically small size of special…

This article first makes a case for the need to establish evaluation reporting standards, support for which is rooted in the growing demand for professionalization, in the growing meta evaluation literature, and in growing efforts to develop reporting standards for inquiry efforts. Then, a case is made for a particular set of such standards…

All students deserve to attend programs and institutions that meet high quality standards. But different program goals, investments of time, and eligibility criteria make it difficult to set specific standards that will apply equally well to all types of programs and institutions. This report sets out principles for developing an accountability…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to outline their academic and English language proficiency goals and provide a detailed proposal for the statewide accountability system in a state ESSA plan. This brief, a collaboration between Achieve and UnidosUS, provides a two-part analysis of states' goals for English learners (ELs) in…

This article draws on three assessment paradigms -- psychometrics, outcomes-based and curriculum-based assessment -- to discuss paradigmatic changes in senior school assessment and achievement standard-setting in Queensland, Australia, over the last 50 years. These include radical reforms in 1970 from university-controlled examinations to…

Most states have developed or revised school accountability systems in response to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). While these systems include multiple indicators, to many stakeholders the outcome of central interest is the overall rating or classification produced for each school. These ratings are often used to identify schools that merit…

Federal accountability requirements after the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 and the need to report progress for various disaggregated subgroups of students meant that the methods used to set and articulate performance standards across the grades must be revisited. Several solutions that involve either "a priori" deliberations…

The Office for Standards in Education's most recently published criteria for "outstanding" teaching are scrutinised and found wanting. They are seen as unrealistic for teachers to meet and equally unrealistic as criteria for use by inspectors. An explanation is offered as to why they are framed as they are and an alternative, more…