Toward Balanced and Equitable Assessment Systems: Considerations for Implementation and Use

Session Type: Organized Discussion

Abstract

This session will engage participants in a discussion about the recently published National Academy of Education (NAEd) volume, The Implementation and Use of Balanced Assessment Systems. The volume’s steering committee and chapter authors put forth a multi-faceted argument that balanced assessment systems must first and foremost support equitable and ambitious teaching. We discuss the system-level design, implementation, and policy levers needed to support these aims.

In addition to defining these goals, this session will provide an analytic framework to examine the national-level policy logics, policy presses on states and local districts, and capacities of states and local districts to implement and use balanced assessment systems. This schema will better inform how states and districts understand the multi-dimensional idea of balanced assessment systems and therefore support its implementation and use. By centering on equitable and ambitious teaching and learning, this volume emphasizes the supportive and critical roles that states and districts need to play in enacting and using assessments.

Sub Unit

• Individual Papers, Innovation Demonstrations, Coordinated Sessions, or Organized Discussions

Session Organizer

• Scott Marion, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

Presenters

• James W Pellegrino

• Lorrie Shepard, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER

• Guillermo Solano-Flores, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

• Jennifer Randall, University of Michigan