Standards, Assessment and Accountability (SAA) Group

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Standards, Assessment and Accountability (SAA)
Group

• Eva Baker, Co-chair P. David Pearson
• Patricia Gandara Diane Ravitch
• Drew Gitomer William Schmidt
• Peg Goertz Alan Schoenfeld
• Jane Hannaway, Co-chair David Stern
• Helen (Sunny) Ladd William T. Trent
• Robert Linn Mark Wilson
• Katie Ranney, Assistant

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Our Task

• Identify ways to recover the
• promise of standards-based
• reform.

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Working Assumptions

• Test-based accountability
• policies are here to stay.
• 2. Education state responsibility

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Standards Based Reform

• Content standard
• Performance standards
• Aligned curriculum
• Assessments
• Accountability

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Good News and Bad News

• Good news
• Local policies and practices respond to the
  accountability systems
• Incentives shape instructional behavior
• Bad news
• Local policies and practices respond to the
  accountability systems
• Incentives shape instructional behavior
• Results less than optimal

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Key Concerns

• Content standards
• Too voluminous, superficial, repetitive
• Lack of clear learning progression
• Give little coherent direction to instruction
• Assessments
• Over-represent relatively easy to measure skills
  under-represent complex reasoning skills
• Accountability
• Limited/flawed representation of school
  performance

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Recommendation 1

• The Federal government should encourage
• the redesign of standards and the curricula,
• professional development, and
• assessments that must go with them to
• represent clear progressions for teaching
• and learning effortsmay involve partner-
• ships among states, universities, teachers,
• scholars, and the private sector.

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Recommendation 1 Key Features

• Foster alignment
• Curriculum frameworks a central feature
• State discretion

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Recommendation 2

• The Federal government should support a
• program of research and development for
• the next generation of assessment tools
• and accountability systems.

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Recommendation 2 Key Issues

• Assessment
• Test more complex understanding, possibly through
  new technologies.
• Provide teachers with instructional guidance.
• Special focus on LEP and other special student
  populations.

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Recommendation 2 Key Issues (cont)

• Accountability
• Test performance triggers further investigation
  before sanctions applied

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Cornerstones of Good SAA System

• Robust progressive standards that clearly define
  what we want students to learn
• Curriculum to guide instruction
• Equally robust assessments
• Accountability system that provides sufficient
  information to guide improvement