Building a Better Performance Assessment
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education officially announced that $350 million designated under the Race to the Top program would be made available to several consortia to develop student assessments aligned with the common core standards states are expected to adopt later this year. The big question many of those watching the assessment discussions are now asking is how different will these next generation assessments be compared to the state tests that have governed the NCLB/AYP era.
Even before taking office, President Obama often expressed frustration and dismay with "bubble tests." A little over a year ago, as part of his education transformation agenda launch, the President stated: "I am calling on our nation's governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity."
So now that that $350 million is about to hit the streets, what exactly does moving beyond the bubbles on the test look like? That was one of the questions that the National Academy of Education and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) asked at a policy forum yesterday titled, "What Do We Know
Even before taking office, President Obama often expressed frustration and dismay with "bubble tests." A little over a year ago, as part of his education transformation agenda launch, the President stated: "I am calling on our nation's governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity."
So now that that $350 million is about to hit the streets, what exactly does moving beyond the bubbles on the test look like? That was one of the questions that the National Academy of Education and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) asked at a policy forum yesterday titled, "What Do We Know