Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin and his administration want to raise the bar for students to pass the state's standardized tests "from the lowest in the nation to the highest in the nation" by next spring. His goal is to close the "honesty gap" between the 79 percent of Virginia students who pass the state's tests and the 39…

The authors of this article call upon classroom memories to demonstrate the harm of the standardized testing apparatus in the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. Goal setting under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has led to targeted school intervention based on metrics, and many states have chosen to double down on standardized ELA and…

Since the 2001 passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), test-based accountability has been an organizing principle--perhaps "the" organizing principle--of efforts to improve American schools. But lately, accountability has been under fire from many critics, including Common Core opponents and those calling for more multifaceted…

On February 18, 2015, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) conducted a Performance Level Description Development meeting in Albany, New York. The meeting was convened to articulate the knowledge and skills expected of students at each level of performance, consistent with the policy vision set forth by the NYSED. The Performance Level…

This paper provides a history of the standardized testing and accountability movement, the curriculum standards attached to the accountability movement, and the attempted shift to common core. Student poverty and its impact on student achievement are the focus of this paper. Recognizing the impact of poverty on student achievement as measured by…

This report describes the alignment of the Common Core State Standards to the math curriculum at DC Bilingual Elementary Charter School in Washington, D.C., which educates all students in English and Spanish. The alignment of the curriculum has been a multiyear, iterative process. School administrators, as well as the school's instructional…

Now more than ever public education and multicultural education face daunting challenges. From federal efforts to privatize public education through vouchers, school take-overs, and charters, to the manner in which high-stakes testing has marginalized multicultural education in the curriculum and pedagogy of our nation's schools, and to the…

Common Core is at the forefront of contemporary education discussions in the United States. In the coming years, its adoption and implementation will be critical in defining what and how American students learn. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) raise K-12 academic benchmarks, thereby requiring schools and districts to adopt new curricula and…

This issue brief lists the agreement principles relating to the use of 11th grade career and college readiness assessment results for student placement in Washington community and technical colleges. As part of the Washington implementation of the new Common Core State Standards for college- and career-readiness, the agreement described herein has…

This paper provides a history of the standardized testing and accountability movement, the curriculum standards attached to the accountability movement, and the attempted shift to common core. Student poverty and its impact on student achievement the focus of this paper. Recognizing the impact of poverty on student achievement as measured by…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, examines how college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. This brief presents findings from C-SAIL's…

In this article Kavita Gupta describes how she used assessment "as" learning, where students learn, self-correct, and collaborate "during" the assessment (Rowe 2012) in her AP chemistry class. In her class, she used these assessments as learning for "performance-based assessments" (PBAs). They share attributes of both…

California is in the midst of a fundamental remaking of its assessment and accountability system that has been in place for 15 years. The state has the opportunity to play a leadership role in developing a multi-faceted assessment and accountability system that goes beyond a narrow focus on test scores and that could be a model for the nation. The…

Federal education legislation continues to emphasize the role of assessment in elementary and secondary schools. Perhaps most prominently, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95), requires the use of test-based educational accountability systems in states and specifies the…

At the turn of the century, the United States was trying to come to grips with a serious education crisis. The country was lagging behind its international peers, and a half-century effort to erode racial disparities in school achievement had made little headway. Many people expected action from the federal government. George W. Bush and Barack…