June 30, 2023
In this Spotlight, WestEd’s assessment experts explore school accountability measures, the myths surrounding culturally and linguistically diverse assessment, and effective systems for measuring multidimensional science standards.
Is the School Assessment and Accountability Era Over?
As the Director of Assessment Research and Innovation at WestEd, Marianne Perie is critical in shaping the agency’s assessment research. Drawing on her wealth of experience in the field, Perie is committed to promoting educational equity through high-quality research.
In this post, she looks at the history of school assessment and accountability. She offers seven recommendations that should be considered in reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Assessment: Myths and Opportunities
Senior Research Associate Molly Faulkner-Bond has built her career around understanding and improving policies, assessments, and programs for students identified as English Learners and amplifying that knowledge to benefit all students and educators. In this popular blog post, she writes:
While I empathize with some concerns that are commonly expressed about shifting assessment practices, I believe many of the concerns arise from myths and misconceptions about what is meant, who is affected, and what is at stake in maintaining versus transforming education assessment practices to be more inclusive.
Faulkner-Bond describes and then counters four common myths underlying concerns about culturally and linguistically responsive assessment practices.
Systems of Assessments for Measuring Multidimensional Science Standards
This post by Matt Silberglitt and Kevin King of WestEd’s Assessment Design and Development team explores the conceptual framework for multidimensional science education standards and how schools and classrooms are responding to these standards. Science teaching in these classrooms is grounded in real-world scientific phenomena, learning that includes connecting ideas across topics and domains of science, and students engaged in really “doing science.”
The post focuses on a balanced assessment system and one state’s efforts to build such a system from the bottom up, as the National Research Council’s Board on Testing and Assessment and the Board of Science Education recommends.
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