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TITLE:
The Building Blocks of State Testing Programs. Statement Series.

AUTHOR(S):
Arnold Shore
Joseph Pedulla
Marguerite Clarke

DOCUMENT TYPE: Report

Link to Document: The Building Blocks of State Testing Programs. Statement Series.

ABSTRACT:
To ensure that educational tests do the least harm and bring the greatest good to the education of elementary and secondary school students, it is important that parents, teachers, educational administrators, and policy makers be actively involved in test construction and use. The purpose of this Statement is to provide a checklist of some components of large-scale testing programs and the choices they represent. This first part of the Statement describes six basic building blocks of state testing programs: (1) stakes levels (high, medium, or low); (2) performance standards; (3) information dissemination; (4) involvement of teachers; (5) technical design and data; and (6) range of measures used to assess educational performance. The second part demonstrates with two simple examples how these building blocks can be put together to form two very different state testing programs. The first scenario is essentially a developmental approach to learning and assessment, while the second scenario is a joint political and educational approach to setting educational standards and assessing educational outcomes. The six building blocks that are highlighted reflect the main dimensions along which current state testing programs differ and around which most debate and controversy occur. (SLD)