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High-Stakes Assessment And Accountability SystemsOverview The public’s demand for raising the educational achievement of all students has led to a mushrooming in high-stakes assessments for students and teachers as well as the emergence of more comprehensive school accountability systems that hold schools, teachers, and students responsible for student learning. The consequences associated with high-stakes assessment results are also increasing. Most states now rely on the results of high stakes assessments to determine a wide range of critical events, including whether or not to: award recognition to a school, reconstitute the staffing in a school, provide bonuses to individual teachers, or graduate students.
In this environment of high-stakes assessment, the Assessment and Standards Development Services program at WestEd is providing a full range of assessment-related services. For example, ASDS staff provide consultation to state policymakers (e.g, governors, State Boards of Education, and superintendents of instruction) on assessment policies and practices. In addition, we are providing specific support services to state departments of education and state associations for their high-stakes assessment programs. This includes assessment development work, administrations of assessments, facilitation of performance-based assessment task scoring, as well as analysis and reporting of assessment results. We also provide a range of technical support services including bias review, equating, and standard setting.
Currently, ASDS staff are providing support to high-stakes statewide student and teacher assessment systems in California, Kentucky, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Utah.
An Example of ASDS Work in High-Stakes Assessment and Accountability Systems: Kentucky’s Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) For the last eight years, WestEd has supported the major statewide school reform effort in Kentucky by developing innovative and traditional assessment items and tasks for students at the elementary, middle school and secondary level. In addition to assessment development, our project work has included designing and implementing sets of noncognitive indicators, such as graduation rates, drop-out rates, and mobility rates as part of Kentucky’s comprehensive accountability system. Nevada WestEd has provided technical support to the Nevada Department of Education and State Board of Education on the development and validation of the High School Proficiency Examinations (HSPE) and the standards on which it is based. In particular, WestEd has developed a bias-review process to ensure that all HSPE items are fair for all Nevada students; participated in the training of the HSPE reading, writing, mathematics, and science item development committees to improve the quality of HSPE items; worked with Nevada educators, business representatives, and the State Board of Education to set the passing scores for the HSPE; and worked to ensure the legal and technical defensibility of the HSPE and overall Nevada Proficiency Testing program.
Assessments in Career Education (ACE) WestEd oversees the development and scoring of the Assessments in Career Education (ACE) for the California Department of Education and Sacramento County Office of Education. The ACE program is a new component to California’s student assessment system. Patterned after the well-established Golden State Examination program, it is designed to recognize students who demonstrate outstanding achievement on rigorous examinations in selected career-technical areas. Publications [pending]
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