Transforming K-12 Assessment: Integrating Accountability Testing, Formative Assessment, and Professional Support

As part of its nonprofit mission, ETS conducts and disseminates the results of research to advance quality and equity in education and assessment for the benefit of ETS' constituents and the field. Abstract This paper presents a brief overview of the status of K-12 accountability testing in the United States. Following that review, we describe an assessment-system model designed to overcome the problems associated with current approaches to accountability testing. In particular, we propose a model in which accountability assessment, formative assessment, and professional support are built on the same conceptual base and work synergistically with one another. We close with a brief discussion of the role of technology and a review of the challenges that must be met if the highly ambitious system we suggest is to be realized. 1 Can advances in cognitive science, psychometrics, and technology transform the accountability paradigm that is currently in place in the United States? Of course, asking this question implies problems with the present enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, a system that requires each state regularly to test students in specified grades and subject areas against a state-imposed proficiency standard. We begin the chapter by describing some of the forces that have led to the heightened emphasis on testing, and then we articulate some of the fundamental problems with the system as currently implemented. We then present an assessment-system model that is designed to overcome some of the inherent weaknesses of the present approach. Specifically, we ask whether we can have an assessment system that goes beyond fulfilling a simple accountability function by (a) documenting what students have achieved (assessment of learning), (b) helping identify how to plan instruction (assessment for learning), and (c) engaging students and teachers in worthwhile educational experiences in and of themselves (assessment as learning). The system we propose is heavily dependent on new technology. However, simply putting current tests on computer will not lead to substantive change in assessment practice. Instead, the system relies on advances in (a) cognitive science and an understanding of how students learn, (b) psychometric approaches that attempt to provide richer characterizations of student achievement, and (c) technologies that allow for the presentation of richer assessment tasks and for the collection and automated scoring of more complex student responses. We close by putting forth the challenges facing the full development and implementation of an assessment system that is intended to …