Educational researchers and policymakers have often lamented the failure of teachers to implement what they consider to be technically sound assessment procedures. Through a case study of New York City’s Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), in the years when it served as a model for progressive American school reform, Duckor and Perlstein demonstrate the usefulness of an alternative to reliance of the technical characteristics of standardized tests for constructing and judging assessments: teachers’ self-conscious and reasoned articulation of their approaches to learning and assessment. They conclude that when teachers are given opportunities for genuine, shared reflection on teaching and learning and classroom practices are tied to this understanding, fidelity to what they call the logic of assessment offers a more promising framework for the improvement of schooling than current forms of high-stakes, standardized accountability. Thus, instead of expecting teachers to rely on data from standardized assessments or replicate features of standardized testing in their own assessment practices, researchers, policymakers and teacher educators should promote fidelity to the broader logic of assessment.

Arthurdale, West Virginia, was created by New Deal policymakers as a resettlement community for displaced coal miners. Its schools were a landmark in efforts to bring Deweyan ideals of progressive education to bear on community life. This article examines the pedagogy developed at Arthurdale and the history of the homestead in order to illuminate the ambiguities of educators’ efforts to promote community.