Assessment and Testing: Portents for Collaboration

• In Event: 77.014 - A Critical Lens on Evaluation Frameworks and Their Policy Implications – Issues for Research Worldwide (WERA@10)

Abstract

Assessment and testing are policy and instructional instruments familiar worldwide, generating claims and actions intended to further the quality of education and learning. International quantitative comparisons give insights on differential equity, but among countries national measures have varying relationships with practice. Because quantitative methodology has historically guided development and reporting of results, its constraints strongly affect validity. Despite professional efforts, the actual validity evidence of national and international tests rarely attends to the range of identified purposes.

How do we balance the impact of quantitative methods? What can we do to give assessments greater legitimacy for evaluating schools and children? There are new tools identifying domain content and refining domain independent elements, e.g., cognitive demands, to guide design, to predict outcomes, and to suggest improvements to strengthen validity and practice. They are in use across countries, supported by new technology. WERA is a natural context for continuing investigation.

Author

• Eva L. Baker, University of California - Los Angeles