Creating a system of accountability: The impact of instructional assessment on elementary children's achievement test scores

Abstract

This study examined the trajectory of change in scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) of low-income, urban, third and fourth graders who had been enrolled in classrooms where the Work Sampling System (WSS), a curriculum-embedded performance assessment, was used for at least three years. The ITBS scores of children exposed to WSS were compared with those of students in a group of non-WSS contrast schools that were matched by race, income, mobility, school size, and number of parents in the home and to a comparison group of all other students in the school district. Results indicated that students who were in WSS classrooms displayed growth in reading from one year to the next that far exceeded the demographically matched contrast group as well as the average change shown by all other students in the district. Children in WSS classrooms made greater gains in math than children in the other two groups, although the results were only marginally significant when compared with gains by the matched contrast group. The discussion concerns the complementarity of performance-based and normative tests in systems of accountability and the potential value of using a curriculum-embedded assessment to enhance teaching, improve learning, and increase scores on conventional accountability examinations.