A Brief History of TestBased Accountability

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A Brief History ofTest-Based Accountability
Lorrie A. Shepard
CRESST Conference UCLA, Los Angeles, CA January
22-23, 2007
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Accountability Chronology
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• Title I, ESEA, 1965
• National Assessment of Educational Progress
  (NAEP), 1969
• SAT Test Score Decline, 1963, 1977
• Minimum Competency Testing
• A Nation at Risk, 1983
• Excellence Movement and Basic Skills Testing,
  1980s
• Standards-Based Reform, 1990s
• NCLB and the Standards Movement Today

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Recurring Themes (Then Now)

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• Title I, ESEA 1965
• Quid Pro Quo Federal dollars spent in exchange
  for evidence of program effectiveness.
• Robert Kennedy Evaluation data to be used by
  parents as a whip or a spur to leverage
  changes in ineffective schools.
• Education seen favorably, its benefits to be
  extended to poor and minority children.

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National Assessment of Educational
Progress(NAEP), 1969

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• Initially an independent and neutral monitor a
  census-like data system like health statistics
  designed independent of political jurisdictions.
• Over time increasingly politicized, scoring
  simplified and interpreted jurisdictions
  identified and compared.
• The use of NAEP to leverage reform has been
  resisted to protect validity of the data.

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SAT Test Score Decline, 1963, 1977

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• Along with economic downturn, Vietnam War,
  disillusionment of the late 1960s,
• The SAT test score decline contributed to a
  political climate that became hypercritical of
  public education.

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Four Decades of Test-Driven Reform

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• Minimum Competency Testing, 1970s
• Excellence Movement and Basic Skills Testing,
  1980s
• Standards-Based Reform, 1990s
• NCLB version of Standards-Based Reform

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Reform Constants

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• Tests and test results used as the primary
  drivers of reform.
• Tests used both to induce and to measure change.
• Policy intended to incentivize change with
  substance of change determined locally.

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Reform Revisions

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• Challenge and quality of test content raised (and
  then lowered).
• Performance levels raised (and then lowered
  again).
• Stakes raised, and raised again.
• The need for capacity-building recognized and
  pursued only by some.

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Challenge of test content raised
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Minimum Competency examinations (now required
in 37 states) fall short of what is needed, as
the minimum tends to become the maximum thus
lowering educational standards for all. (p. 20)
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Challenge of test content raised
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Standards must reflect high expectations, not
expectations of minimal competency. To make
national standards meaningful, it is important
that the Nation be able to measure progress
toward them. New forms of assessment tests
worth teaching to are envisioned. The
National Council on Education Standards and
Testing. 1992.
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Standards Movement Today
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• Competing Models
• Cacophonous standards
• Good and ill effects

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Standards Movement Today

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• Competing models
• (Elmore Rothman, 1999)
• The basic standards-based reform model/
• High-stakes incentives model
• Vs.
• Expanded, capacity-building model/
• Teaching and learning, cognitive science model

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Competing Models (Elmore Rothman)How
Standards Produce Higher Learning
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School delivery standards
Standards and assessments must be accompanied
by policies that provide access for all students
to high quality resources, including appropriate
instructional materials and well-prepared
teachers. NCEST, 1992
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Opportunity to learn
It is unfair to hold students accountable for
what and how well they are learning unless they
are provided with opportunity to
learn. Without adequate support, higher
standards will further victimize students already
harmed by gross inequities in the educational
system. NAE, 1995
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Cacophonous Standards

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• Minimum competency standards coexist with
  world-class standards.
• Public doesnt know which is which.

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Cacophonous Standards
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Good and ill effects

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• Accountability pressure has both increased and
  decreased achievement.
• Teaching the test is widespread leading to
  test-score inflation or increased achievement
  depending on the quality of the test.
• Accountability may have negative side effects,
  e.g., deprofessionalization, and exodus of
  teachers from low-scoring schools.

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Advice for Policymakers

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• Ensure the quality of assessment content.
• The best way to prevent limited learning from
  test-driven instruction is to build assessments
  that represent the full content domain, with a
  rich variety of assessment formats.

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Advice for Policymakers

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• Evaluate the validity and impact of assessment
  programs.
• Tests are short-cut tools. Real validity studies
  require independent measures of student learning.
• To evaluate the effect of high-stakes testing on
  school improvement, motivational and moral
  dimensions of schooling must be studied as well
  as achievement.

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