Looking at Assessment Through Learning-Colored Lenses

Abstract

For almost 100 years, American educators have relied on a comparison-focused conception of educational measurement—a conception contributing little to students’ learning. This chapter describes the pivotal role of a famous World War I aptitude test in fostering this perception of assessment. It identifies the nature and the potential contributions of criterion-referenced measurement, along with the admonition that even assessments yielding criterion-referenced interpretations must be carefully evaluated. In addition to explicitly describing what a given test measures, tests that contribute to an assessment-for-learning strategy must provide instructionally actionable results. This chapter argues that educational tests must be perceived not in a traditional manner but, rather, from a learning perspective.