Criteria for High-Quality Assessment
From the abstract:
States and school districts across the nation are making critical decisions about student assessments as they move to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted by 45 states. The Standards feature an increased focus on deeper learning, or students’ ability to analyze, synthesize, compare, connect, critique, hypothesize, prove, and explain their ideas. States are at different points in the CCSS transitions, but all will be assessing their K-12 students against these higher standards in the 2014-15 school year.
Based on the changing demands of today’s workforce, advances in other nations, and original analysis, this report provides a set of criteria for high-quality student assessments. These criteria can be used by assessment developers, policymakers, and educators as they work to create and adopt assessments that promote deeper learning of 21st- century skills that students need to succeed in today’s knowledge-based economy.”
The five criteria for high quality assessments which this guidance document focuses on are: Assessment of Higher-Order Cognitive Skills, High-Fidelity Assessment of Critical Abilities, Assessments that Are Internationally Benchmarked, Use of Items that Are Instructionally Sensitive and Educationally Valuable, and Assessments that Are Valid, Reliable, and Fair. This guidance developed by well-respected experts in the field adds value in its clear presentation of how new standards require new assessment practices to fairly measure higher-order cognitive skills and abilities. The organization, language, and visual illustrations add to both its value and communication to readers. It serves as a useful and timely resource to educators looking to implement new practice aligned to CCSS. Its guidelines are based on assessment research with demonstrated effectiveness.