Aiming at Learning: Assessment as the Critical Link

Abstract

Inequities in educational opportunity in the United States and variability in individual states' standards for student achievement have been amply demonstrated by the intensive focus on standardized test results over the past few years. The call for higher educational attainment for U.S. students has intensified even as test results indicate persistent performance gaps. In order to effect real changes in the achievement of students in U.S. public schools, particularly the learning achievement of children in poverty, we need to think differently about assessment, and recognize its rightfully central place in the education enterprise. To do this, however, we need also to recognize that we can make no progress without some common set of assumptions and benchmarks by which we gauge such progress. What we need is an assessment that is worth teaching to, one that allows for meaningful comparisons across states, and one that is connected with instruction in fundamental ways. One way to accomplish these goals would be to use the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to create benchmark assessments at 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels to assess the achievement of all students in U.S. public schools against common standards for learning and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)