Refocusing Accountability: Using Local Performance Assessments to Enhance Teaching and Learning for Higher Order Skills, a Briefing Paper Prepared for Members of The Congress of The United States, by George Wood, Linda Darling-Hammond, Monty Neill and Pat Roschewski, is on the FairTest website.
You can link from it to legislative language to change NCLB in line with the recommendations of the paper. These recommendations are very consistent with the legislative proposals of the Forum on Educational Accountability, based in turn on the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB. The FEA recommendations and the Joint Statement are also at www.edaccountability.org.
The text of the executive summary of “Refocusing Accountability” follows:
Executive Summary
Refocusing Accountability:
Using Local Performance Assessments to Enhance Teaching and Learning for Higher Order Skills
By George Wood, Linda Darling-Hammond, Monty Neill and Pat Roschewski
Performance based assessments, often locally controlled and involving multiple measures of achievement, offer a way to move beyond the limits and negative effects of standardized examinations currently in use for school accountability. While federal legislation calls for “multiple up-to-date measures of student academic achievement, including measures that assess higher-order thinking skills and understanding” (NCLB, Sec. 1111, b, I, vi), most assessment tools used for federal reporting focus on lower-level skill that can be measured on standardized mostly multiple-choice tests. High stakes attached to them have led schools to not engage in more challenging and engaging curriculum but to limit school experiences to those that focus on test preparation.
Performance assessments that are locally controlled and involve multiple measures assist students in learning and teachers in teaching for higher order skills. These tools engage students in the demonstration of skills and knowledge through the performance of tasks that provide teachers with an understanding of student achievement and learning needs. Large scale examples involving the use of such performance-based assessments come from states such as Nebraska, Wyoming, Connecticut and New York, as well as nations such as Australia and Singapore. The evidence from research on these and other systems indicate that through using performance assessments schools can focus instruction on higher order skills, provide a more accurate measure of what students know and can do, engage students more deeply in learning, and provide for more timely feedback to teachers, parents, and students in order to monitor and alter instruction.
Research evidence suggests that in order for performance assessment systems to work, governments must make significant investments in both teacher development and the development of performance tasks. However, this investment is often no greater than the cost of standardized measures. More important, it strengthens teacher quality and student learning. Performance assessment systems can be reliable and valid, having both content and predictive validity when appropriately utilized.
Based on the evidence that performance based assessment better meets the federal agenda of teaching for higher-level skills, reauthorization of NCLB should support and encourage state and local education agencies in developing performance assessments. Congress can amend Section 1111 (b)(3) of NCLB with a new paragraph (D) that authorizes and encourages states to move to performance based assessments and multiple measures incorporated into a system combining state and local assessments. Authorization for adequate funding to support this move should be included in the legislation.
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