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Documents and Articles on Authentic Assessment and Accountability

Submitted by fairtest on August 29, 2007 - 12:37pm
  • A Better Way to Assess Students and Evaluate Schools
  • "Multiple Measures: A Definition and Examples from the U.S. and Other Nations." Includes a 2-page summary, 10 pp of text, and 2 appendices. 
  • Monty Neill's article, "A Child Is Not a Test Score:
    Assessment as a Civil Rights Issue,    " from the Fall 2009 issue of Root and
    Branch    , is avaiable here.
  • Materials from the May 2009 FairTest-NEA Conference on Assessment Reform.

  • The Expert Panel on Assessment recommends overhaul of NCLB testing and accountability provisions.
  • New FairTest Fact Sheet: Position Paper on Assessment for Learning, from the Third International Conference on Assessment for Learning (AFL), provides an excellent definition and explanation of AFL's educational value. HTML or PDF
  • FairTest Fact Sheet: The Value of Formative Assessment HTML or PDF
  •  Refocusing Accountability: Using Local Performance Assessments to Enhance Teaching and Learning for Higher Order Skills(HTML) or (PDF) - paper co-authored by FairTest; with language to amend NCLB law.
  • Multiple Measures for Graduation
  • Tufts University student James Gerber's video on how Massachusetts' MCAS
    standardized history test will undermine Boston Arts Academy's in-depth and multifaceted approach to teaching art and history.
    It is in two parts, part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mh5GonqJoQ
    and part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVI6BfBZGPg&NR=1
  • Assessment of ELL Students under NCLB: Problems and Solutions.

  • Promoting Sound Assessment - a paper prepared by FairTest for the American Association of School Administrators, published on our website with permission.
  • A variety of articles on assessment of mixed quality, some good material on classroom assessment focusing on math and science.
  • FairTest's response to Instructionally Supportive Assessment's Commission report on improving state assessment programs
  • Principles and Indicators for Student Assessment Systems
  • Annotated bibliography on Performance Assessment
  • Transforming Student Assessment, by Monty Neill, FairTest Executive Director, Phi Delta Kappan, Sept. 1997.
  • How the Principles and Indicators for Student Assessment Systems Should Affect Practice presented by Monty Neill, AERA Annual Meeting, New York City, April 9, 1996  (Minor revisions, April 17, 1996).
  • Learning Record Shows Promise For Accountability Uses by Monty Neill, September 1997.
  • Inside the Black Box, Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment, by Paul Black and Dylan William, Phi Delta Kappan, October 1998. Also see FairTest Review theValue of Formative Assessment - Winter 1998-99.
  • Important school and student attributes that should be assessed but are not by standardized tests - by Ron Berger, educator from Massachusetts.
  • Improving Learning Through Student Assessment in Michigan by Michael Peterson, Wayne State University, pdf format.
  • Learning to teach better by examining student work
    by Debra Williams, Catalyst, December 1999
  • Student work is citywide focus in Boston
    How one and why one city took this route. Catalyst, December 1999
  • See excerpts from the December 2001 Phi Delta Kappan magazine story, which endorses the Massachusetts Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education's Authentic Assessment plan. Let's Treat the Cause, Not the Symptoms: Equity And Accountability in Texas Revisited," by Richard R. Valencia, Angela Valenzuela, Kris Sloan, and Douglas E. Foley Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 83, No. 4, December 2001

  • Why is Looking at Student Work Important? by Kate Nolan, Director of Re-Thinking Accountability
  • New report: Opening Classrooms and Improving Teaching: Lessons from School Inspections in England

  • Draft Accountability Statement for Public Review and Comment. The Rural Trust recently completed a draft statement on educational assessment and accountability policy and is looking for feedback from the public. You can view the statement and submit a response at http://www.ruraledu.org/assess_account .html. You may also address your comments to: Marty Strange, Policy Director, Rural Trust, P.O. Box 68, Randolph, VT 05060, or to marty.strange@ruraledu.org.
  • Other FairTest publications

    • FairTest finds that nearly 850 four-year colleges do not use the SAT I or ACT to admit substantial numbers of bachelor degree applicants.

    See the searchable listing of schools.

    Find out how and why colleges go Test Optional

    Members of the Media:

    Contact Robert Schaeffer at (239) 395-6773 or FairTest at (617) 477-9792