Assessment and Accountability
Editor’s Note
Assessment and accountability go hand in hand in the effort to improve academic achievement for all children. These articles investigate emerging trends in assessment (including informative assessment and value-added techniques), probe the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, and raise important questions about high-stakes testing and its impact on student learning.
By DAVID MCKAY WILSON
The cheating scandals that rocked school districts from Georgia to Connecticut have sullied school district reputations, ended education careers, and cast an unflattering light on the ugly underbelly of the accountability movement. Continue
By ROBERT ROTHMAN
The Common Core State Standards are one of the most significant initiatives in American education in decades. Yet the swiftness with which they were developed and adopted has left educators uncertain about exactly what they are. A number of myths about the standards have emerged. Continue
Challenges for assessment
By W. JAMES POPHAM
Our nation is currently caught up in an enormous educational challenge: to see whether the vast majority of our states cannot only adopt identical curriculum standards in mathematics and English language arts (ELA) but also devise suitable instructional and assessment systems linked to those standards. Continue
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