State Assessment

How Do I Evaluate the Quality of My State’s Assessment and Accountability Program?

Measurement experts are perhaps in the best position to articulate the features of a high-quality state assessment and accountability program from a technical perspective. The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing offers “Standards for Educational Accountability Systems” (Report available as Policy Brief #5 at www.cresst.org/products/policybriefs_set.htm). The standards are organized into five components (on System Components, Testing, Stakes, Public Reporting Formats, and Evaluation).

Professional organizations whose members are on the receiving end of state assessment and accountability programs also articulate their views of what good state assessment programs might look like. In 2001, several professional organizations commissioned a report called “Building Tests to Support Instruction and Accountability: A Guide for Policymakers” (available at www.aasa.org/issues_and_insights/assessment/index.htm) to advance recommendations for states to consider. (Also, download a SERVE Vision Magazine article on this report.)

States can be described or evaluated and graded on a number of different dimensions, such as the quality of their standards, the quality of their tests, the degree to which test development processes meet professional standards, the logic and reasonableness of their accountability systems (e.g., approach to grading schools), the degree to which they reflect on unintended consequences of accountability and try to address them, the extent of the assistance provided to identified low-performing schools, etc. Seeing where your state stands can be informative. Check the following sources for state reviews.

• www.ccsso.org/federal_programs/nclb/index.cfm The Council of Chief State School Officers provides regularly updated information on state progress in implementing NCLB.
• www.princetonreview.com/footer/testingtesters.asp The Princeton Review’s Annual Testing the Testers’ Report (2003) assesses academic alignment, test quality, sunshine, and policy dimensions.
• www.aft.org/topics/sbr/states.htm This professional organization offers a state-by-state analysis of four dimensions: content standards, curriculum and instruction, assessing student performance, and accountability. Descriptions of each of these four dimensions include criteria that define quality for that dimension.

School quality, although judged primarily by test scores in most state and federal accountability systems, is judged by parents in broader ways. Go to the Parents’ Page of the www.cresst.org website to find a useful article on “Beyond Test Scores – How Can Parents Judge the Quality of Their Schools?”

The Center for Education Policy is actively engaged in the long-term study and analysis of the No Child Left Behind Act. The organization publishes a “Test Talk for Leaders” series. A September 2004 issue provided an in-depth analysis of the concept of Adequate Yearly Progress, which is central to the NCLB Act. “Whether the AYP requirements are a fair and adequate gauge of school quality is a matter of intense debate” (www.cep-dc.org/pubs/TestTalk/CEPTestTalk3.pdf). Another readable description of the issues behind AYP can be found at CRESST Policy Brief # 6.

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