Pearson, ETS, and College Board issued Thoughts on an
Assessment of Common Core Standards. No
surprises in the summary:
*no test can serve all instructional and
accountability needs; think about assessment systems
*assessments should enable state-to-state comparisons
and international benchmarking
*the 3-8 systems should support growth models
*data collected over the year should be included in
summative assessment
*tests should be online and should make use of
adaptive technology
*more than multiple choice and consistent with good
instruction
However, if you go back and re-read the iNACOL paper
on competency-based learning, the two papers don’t seem to envision the same
learning environment. The first paper is
written for the schools we have, not the schools we need; it assumes age
cohorts slogging through print on an agrarian calendar. It retains an end of year focus and does not
support competency-based learning—it suggests that “ultimately” there should be
support for on-demand assessment.
Here’s why that’s a disaster: assessment is the
backbone of the system and as long as state assessment presumes age cohorts and
a 180-day year, that’s what we’ll get.
