Establishing Multilevel Coherence in Assessment

by Drew Gitomer & Richard A. Duschl - 2007

The enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act (NLCB) has resulted in an unprecedented and very direct connection between high-stakes assessments and instructional practice. Historically, the disassociation between large-scale assessments and classroom practice has been decried, but the current irony is that the influence these tests now have on educational practice has raised even stronger concerns (e.g., Abrams, Pedulla, & Madaus, 2003) stemming from a general narrowing of the curriculum, both in terms of subject areas and in terms of the kinds of skills and understandings that are taught. The cognitive models underlying these assessments have been criticized (Shepard, 2000), evidence is still collected primarily through multiple choice items, and psychometric models still order students along a single dimension of proficiency.

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This article originally appeared as NSSE Yearbook Vol 106. No. 1.

Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record Volume 109 Number 13, 2007, p. 288-320 https://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 18522, Date Accessed: 10/16/2021 8:59:26 PM Purchase Reprint Rights for this article or review