The CLASS (classroom assessment scoring system) has become integrally linked with quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) throughout the United States and other international locations. This relationship reinforces the neoliberal consumer-based perspectives of quality and devalues localized perspectives. This article challenges the notion of…

Twenty-eight studies of grades, over a century, were reviewed using the argument-based approach to validity suggested by Kane as a theoretical framework. The review draws conclusions about the meaning of graded achievement, its relation to tested achievement, and changes in the construct of graded achievement over time. "Graded…