Assessment

Definition

Assessment is a process of gathering and documenting information about the achievement, skills, abilities, and personality variables of an individual.

Description

Assessment is used in both an educational and psychological setting by teachers, psychologists, and counselors to accomplish a range of objectives. These include the following:

• to learn more about the competencies and deficiencies of the individual being tested
• to identify specific problem areas and/or needs
• to evaluate the individual's performance in relation to others
• to evaluate the individual's performance in relation to a set of standards or goals
• to provide teachers with feedback on effectiveness of instruction
• to evaluate the impact of psychological or neurological abnormalities on learning and behavior
• to predict an individual's aptitudes or future capabilities

In the early 2000s standardized tests are increasingly used to evaluate performance in U.S. schools. Faced with declining test scores by American students when compared to others around the world, state governments and the federal government have sought ways to measure the performance of schools and bring a measurable accountability to the educational process. Thus, states and the federal government have adopted standardized tests for evaluating knowledge and skills on the assumption that testing is an effective way to measure outcomes of education. One prominent program has been the No Child Left Behind Act that requires schools to meet certain performance standards annually, for their students as a group and also for individual ethnic and racial subgroups. The use of this type of standardized tests is controversial. Many educators feel that it limits the creativity and effectiveness of the classroom teacher and produces an environment of "teaching to the test."

Educational assessments

The choice of an assessment tool depends on the purpose or goal of the assessment. Assessments might be made to establish rankings among individual students, to determine the amount of information students have retained, to provide feedback to students on their levels of achievement, to motivate students by recognizing and rewarding good performances, to assess the need for remedial education, and to evaluate students for class placement or ability grouping. The goal of the assessment should be understood by all stakeholders in the process: students, parents, teachers, counselors, and outside experts. An assessment tool that is appropriate for one goal is often inappropriate for another, leading to misuse of data.

Assessment tools fall broadly into two groups. Traditional assessments rely on specific, structured procedures and instructions given to all test-takers by the test administrator (or to be read by the test-takers themselves). These tests are either norm-referenced or criterion-referenced tests. Standardized tests allow researchers to compare data from large numbers of students or subgroups of students. Alternative assessments are often handled on an individual basis and offer students the opportunity to be more closely involved with the recognition of their progress and to discover what steps they can take to improve.

NORM-REFERENCED ASSESSMENTS In norm-referenced assessments, one person's performance is interpreted in relation to the performance of others. A norm-referenced test is designed to discriminate among individuals in the area being measured and to give each individual a rank or relative measure regarding how he or she performs compared to others of the same age, grade, or other subgroup. Often the mean, or average score, is the reference point, and individuals are scored on how much above or below the average they fall. These tests are usually timed. Norm-referenced tests are often used to tell how a school or school district is doing in comparison to others in the state or nation.

CRITERION-REFERENCED ASSESSMENTS A criterion-referenced assessment allows interpretation of a test-taker's score in relation to a specific standard or criterion. Criterion-referenced tests are designed to help evaluate whether a child has met a specific level of performance. The individual's score is based not on how he or she does in comparison to how others perform, but on how the individual does in relation to absolute expectations about what he or she is supposed to know. An example of a criterion-referenced test is a timed arithmetic test that is scored for the number of problems answered correctly. Criterion-referenced tests measure what information an individual has retained and they give teachers feedback on the effectiveness of their teaching particular concepts.

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT Performance assessment can be used to evaluate any learning that is skill-based or behavioral. Performance assessment requires the test-taker to perform a complex task that has to do with producing a certain product or performing a specific task. Performance assessments can be either individual or group-oriented and may involve application of real-life or workplace skills (for example, making a piece of furniture in wood shop).

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT Authentic assessment derives its name from the idea that it tests students in skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the real world. Authentic assessment focuses on student task performance and is often used to improve learning in practical areas. An advantage of authentic assessment is that students may be able to see how they would perform in a practical, non-educational setting and thus may be motivated to work to improve.

PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT Portfolio assessment uses a collection of examples of the actual student's work. It is designed to advance through each grade of school with the student, providing a way for teachers and others to evaluate progress. One of the hallmarks of portfolio assessment is that the student is responsible for selecting examples of his or her own work to be placed in the portfolio. The portfolio may be used by an individual classroom teacher as a repository for work in progress or for accomplishments. Portfolios allow the teacher to evaluate each student in relation to his or her own abilities and learning style. The student controls the assessment samples, helping to reinforce the idea that he or she is responsible for learning and should have a role in choosing the data upon which he or she is judged. Portfolios are often shared by the student and teacher with parents during parent-teacher conferences.

INTERVIEW ASSESSMENT The assessment interview involves a one-on-one or small group discussion between the teacher and student, who may be joined by parents or other teachers. Standardized tests reveal little about the test-taker's thought process during testing. An interview allows the teacher or other administrator to gain an understanding of how the test-taker reached his or her answer. Individual interviews require a much greater time commitment on the part of the teacher than the administration of a standardized test to the entire class at one time. Thus, interviews are most effective when used to evaluate the achievements and needs of specific students. To be successful, interviews require both the teacher and the student to be motivated, open to discussion, and focused on the purpose of the assessment.

JOURNALS Journals have been used as part of the English curriculum since at least the 1980s. In assessment, the journal allows the student to share his or her thoughts on the learning process. A journal may substitute for or supplement a portfolio in providing a student-directed assessment of achievement and goals.

ATTITUDE INVENTORY Attitude is one component of academic success that is rarely measured objectively. An attitude inventory is designed to reveal both positive and negative (or productive and unproductive) aspects of a student's outlook toward school and learning. However, this type of assessment may be of limited use if the student's negative attitude makes him or her unwilling to actively participate in the assessment. By demonstrating a sincere interest in addressing student concerns that affect attitude, a school can improve the effectiveness of attitude inventory assessments.

COMPUTER-AIDED ASSESSMENT Computer-aided assessment is increasingly employed as a supplement to other forms of assessment. A key advantage in the use of computers is the capability of an interactive assessment to provide immediate feedback on responses. Students must be comfortable with computers and reading on a computer screen for these assessments to be successful.

Psychological assessments

Psychological assessment of children is used for a variety of purposes, including diagnosing learning disabilities and behavioral and attention problems. Psychologists can obtain information about a child in three general ways: observation, verbal questioning or written questionnaires, and assignment of tasks. The child's pediatrician, parents, or teacher may ask for psychological assessment to gain a greater understanding of the child's development and needs. There are many different psychological tests , and the psychologist must choose the ones that will provide the most relevant and reliable information in each situation. Often multiple tests are performed. However, most psychological assessments fall into one of three categories: observational methods, personality inventories, or projective techniques.

OBSERVATIONAL ASSESSMENT Observations are made by a trained professional either in a familiar setting (such as a classroom or playroom), an experimental setting, or during an office interview. Toys , dolls, or other items are often included in the setting to provide stimuli. The child may be influenced by the presence of an observer. However, researchers report that younger children often become engrossed in their activities and thus are relatively unaffected by the presence of an observer. Sometimes, for example, if attention deficit is suspected, several people are asked to observe the child under different circumstances: the teacher at school, the parent at home, and the psychologist in an office setting. Observational assessments are usually combined with other types of educational or psychological assessments when learning needs and behavioral problems are being evaluated.

PERSONALITY INVENTORIES A personality inventory is a questionnaire used with older children and adults that contains questions related to the subject's feelings or reactions to certain scenarios. One of the best-known personality inventories for people over age 16 is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), a series of over 500 questions used to assess personality traits and psychological disturbances. Interviews or verbal questionnaires for personality assessment may be structured with a specific series of questions or be unstructured, allowing the subject to direct the discussion. Interviewers often use rating scales to record information during interviews.

PROJECTIVE TESTS A projective test asks the test-taker to interpret ambiguous situations. It requires a skilled, trained examiner to administer and interpret a projective test. The reliability of these tests with children is difficult to establish due to their subjective nature, with results varying widely among different examiners. One well-known projective test is the Rorschach Psycho-diagnostic Test, or inkblot test, first devised by the Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s. Another widely used projective test for people ages 14 to 40 is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), developed at Harvard University in the 1930s. In this test, the subject is shown a series of pictures, each of which can be interpreted in a variety of ways, and asked to construct a story based on each one. An adaptation administered to children aged three to ten is the Children's Apperception Test (CAT). Apperception tests are administered to children individually by a trained psychologist to assess personality, maturity, and psychological health.

ASSIGNMENT OF TASK ASSESSMENT Assignment of tasks is an assessment method involving the performance of a specific task or function. These tests are designed to inform the test administrator about attributes such as the test-taker's abilities, perceptions, and motor coordination. They can be especially helpful in assessing if there is a physical or neurological component that needs to be addressed medically or with occupational, speech, or physical therapy.

Common problems

Assessment of children is challenging given the rapid changes in growth they experience during childhood. In childhood, it is difficult to ensure that the test-taker's responses will be stable for even a short time. Thus, psychologists, educators, and other test administrators are careful to take the stage of childhood into account when interpreting a child's test scores.

Traditional standardized tests rely on specific, structured procedures, which with young children presents some problems. Young children (preschool and early elementary years) do not have past experience and familiarity with tests and have limited understanding of the expectations of testing procedures. With young test-takers, the test administrator represents a significant factor that influences success. The child must feel comfortable with the test administrator and feel motivated to complete the test exercise. The administrator helps support the test-taker's attention to the test requirements. The testing environment affects all test-takers but may represent a more significant variable for the youngest test-takers.

One shortcoming of standardized testing is that it assumes that the same instrument can evaluate all students. Because most standardized tests are norm-referenced and measure a student's test performance against the performance of other test-takers, students and educators focus their efforts on the test scores, and schools develop curricula to prepare students to take the test. Other criticisms of standardized tests are that they are culturally insensitive and that they may not accurately represent the abilities of children in the United States for whom English is not their first language or who are not a part of mainstream American culture. Finally, in middle and high school settings, disgruntled students may inconspicuously sabotage their tests since these scores do not affect the students' own grades but reflect rather upon the competency of the teacher and the school administration.

Alternative assessments are subject to other concerns. Observer biases and inconsistencies have been identified through study of the assessment procedures. In the halo effect, the observer evaluates the child's behavior in a way that confirms his general previous impression of the child. For example, the observer believes a particular child is happy and loving. If, when the observer assesses that child, the child lays a doll face down on the table, the observer interprets this act as parenting behavior. On the other hand, if the observer believes the child is angry and hostile, when this child is observed laying the doll face down on the table, the observer may interpret the action as aggression. The expectations of the observer conveyed directly or through body language and other subtle cues may also influence how the child performs and how the observer records and interprets his or her observations. This observer bias can influence the outcome of an assessment.

Parental concerns

Parents are justifiably concerned that their child be evaluated fairly and appropriately. They have the right to understand the purpose of the assessment, how it will be performed, how the information will be used, who will see the assessment results, and how the privacy of their child will be protected. Any professional performing an educational or psychological assessment should be willing discuss these concerns and to share the results of the assessment and their implications with the parent. Parents should be willing to share with examiners any information that might alter interpretation of the assessment results (for example, medical problems, cultural concerns).

When to ask for an assessment

Parents should request an assessment from the teacher whenever necessary to understand their child's progress, both in relation to expected grade-level expectations and performance in relation to other children in the class. Most schools and teachers offer parents many opportunities to discuss the assessment of their child. When teacher assessment indicates that a child has special needs or problems, the parent should request an evaluation by the school's child study team or an outside expert. Parents may also want to discuss appropriate assessments with their child's pediatrician and ask for an referral to a child psychologist or psychiatrist.

KEY TERMS

Authentic task assessment —Evaluation of a task performed by a student that is similar to tasks performed in the outside world.

Criterion-referenced test —An assessment that measures the achievement of specific information or skills against a standard as opposed to being measured against how others perform.

Halo effect —An observer bias in which the observer interprets a child's actions in a way that confirm the observer's preconceived ideas about the child.

Norm-referenced test —A test that measures the performance of a student against the performance of a group of other individuals.

Portfolio —A student-controlled collection of student work products that indicates progress over time.

Standardized test —A test that follows a regimented structure, and each individuals scores may be compared with those of groups of people. In the case of the Cognistat, test taker's scores can be compared to groups of young adults, middle-aged adults, the geriatric, and people who have undergone neurosurgery.

Task —A goal directed activity used in assessment.

See also California Achievement Tests (CAT); Children's Apperception Test (CAT); Development tests.

Resources

BOOKS

Carter, Phillip, and Ken Russell. Psychometric Testing: 1000 Ways to Assess Your Personality, Creativity, Intelligence, and Lateral Thinking. New York: Wiley & Sons, 2001.

Groth-Marnat, Gary. Handbook of Psychological Assessment, 4th ed. New York: Wiley & Sons, 2003.

Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. The Student Evaluation Standards. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2003.

ORGANIZATIONS

Evaluation Center. 4405 Ellsworth Hall, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008–5237. Web site: <www.wmich.edu/evalctr/jc>.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. 1509 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036. Web site: <www.naeyc.org>.

Tish Davidson, A.M.

ASSESSMENT

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is the term most commonly used to refer to the specialized process by which the health of some elderly people is assessed. CGA has four characteristics:

1. It is multi-factorial, encompassing items traditionally regarded both as "medical" and "social."
2. Its emphasis is on the functional ability of the person being assessed.
3. It includes an inventory of both assets and deficits.
4. It is action oriented, that is, it provides the basis for the subsequent management plan for the patient who is being assessed.

To consider this process in more detail, we can examine each of the items identified in the opening sentence: Some people, are assessed, by a specialized process. CGA is not meant for all elderly people, only some. Two features identify those individuals who might benefit from CGA: the person should have compromised function; and, they should have more than one thing wrong. Compromised function is key: people who are engaged in all activities in which they would like to be engaged, at a level that is fully satisfying for them, normally do not require CGA, even if they might have one or more medical illnesses, such as high blood pressure or osteoarthritis. But when elderly people find that they can no longer can perform certain activities necessary for them to remain independent, including things like looking after their household or getting dressed, then they become potential candidates for CGA. The other criterion for a person to become a candidate for CGA is to have more than one active medical problem that in some way is gives rise to, or appears to give rise to, the problem with function. To say that an elderly person has compromised function and multiple medical problems is another way of saying that that person is frail.

People with multiple problems require assessment of those problems. This assessment is in contrast to the usual medical approach, which begins with a diagnosis of the medical problem. Diagnosis is the process whereby clues from talking to (called taking the history) and examining the patient yield a pattern that is recognizable as having a single cause. Although more than one problem can be active at once, the traditional emphasis in medical diagnosis is on distilling many symptoms (what the patient tells the physician) and signs (what the physician finds on the examination) into a single cause, called the diagnosis.

The first practitioners of geriatric medicine recognized that this approach, while essential in sorting out the medical problems of frail elderly people, was inadequate in meeting their health needs. For example, many frail elderly people who are medically ill also are deconditioned —that is, they are weaker, especially in the shoulders and hips, more prone to fall, and more prone to abnormalities of fluid balance—but deconditioning is not a traditional medical diagnosis. Knowing how intensively to rehabilitate someone who is deconditioned in a hospital requires some understanding of their home circumstances: Will they have to climb stairs at home? Is there someone readily available to help? Is that person able and willing to help? Such practical methods fall outside the traditional domains of medical diagnoses, and their systematic inventory is what underlies the "assessment" process. Many authors believe that the term "assessment" has too narrow a focus, and that a proper assessment should not only give rise to a plan for addressing the problems thus identified, but should also include the management of the problems themselves, at least after they are stabilized. As a consequence, the term geriatric evaluation and management is sometimes preferred to describe what traditionally has been known as CGA.

Methods of CGA

The specialized nature of CGA lies in the systematic approach to a patient's problems. Although variation exists among practices, most methods of CGA include, in addition to an evaluation of the patient's medical diagnosis, an assessment of the following domains:

1. Cognitive function. Problems that give rise to impairment of thinking, language, memory, and other aspects of cognition include syndromes such as dementia, delirium, and depression. Typically, cognition is screened using a brief instrument such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The MMSE tests several aspects of cognition, including memory, attention, concentration, orientation, language, and visual-spatial function. If this screening test detects an abnormality, then a more detailed evaluation is required.
2. Emotion. The domain of emotion includes a screening of mood, to look for signs of depression, as well as an evaluation of common problems such as anxiety, or disorders of the mental state such as delusions or hallucinations. In addition, health attitudes are assessed, including the level of motivation, which is particularly important for patients who are being screened for participation in a rehabilitation program.
3. Communication. Communication assessment typically includes a screening of vision, hearing, speech, and language.
4. Mobility. The assessment of mobility that is, the ability to move about in bed, transfer in and or of bed, and walk is particularly important, as it is necessary for independence. In addition, because so many older people have atypical presentations of their illness, careful evaluation of their mobility as it first declines and then gets better allows clinicians to readily determine whether their patients are improving or getting worse. Given that many frail elderly people do not demonstrate the usual signs of sickness as they become ill (for example, they may not show an elevated temperature or white cell count when they have an infection), having a ready means to track illness progression and recovery is of great practical benefit, and careful assessment of mobility and balance allows this to be done.
5. Balance. The assessment of balance is distinct from the assessment of mobility. Again, its importance lies both in its intrinsic value in relation to independence and in its value of improving or worsening health in the setting of acute illness.
6. Bowel function. Bowel function is typically assessed by inquiring about the patient's bowel habit and by physical assessment, which should include a rectal examination.
7. Bladder function. It is important to understand whether an older person is having difficulty with urination. In men, this often reflects disease of prostate. In either sex, the presence of urinary incontinence is of particular importance. As with problems in mobility and balance, the significance lies not just in the incontinence per se, but in incontinence as a sign of illness, within the genitourinary system and elsewhere.
8. Nutrition. Interestingly, nutrition is often neglected in the traditional medical examination. It is important to assess the patient's weight and to note the presence of weight loss, and the time over which this weight loss has occurred. Routine laboratory investigations also offer some insight into an elderly person's nutritional status.
9. Daily activities. In some ways this is at the heart of the assessment. It is extremely important to know whether older people are capable of fully caring for themselves in their particular setting. These activities traditionally are divided into "instrumental" activities of daily living, such as using a telephone, or doing shopping, caring for finances, and administering medications, and "personal" activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, or eating. Understanding where problems exist and how they presently are dealt with is essential to knowing how an illness impacts on an older person.
10. Social situation. In addition to inquiring about the usual living circumstances, and whether there is a caregiver, the part of the assessment concerning social situation is the most distinct from the traditional medical examination. While it is clear that the patient enjoys primacy in the physician-patient relationship, it is also the case that the needs of the caregiver cannot be ignored. Indeed, where an older person is dependent in essential activities of daily living, the caregiver becomes the most important asset to the maintenance of independence. It is therefore essential to understand how caregivers feel about their caring role, and whether, and under what circumstances, they can see themselves continuing in it.

The efficacy of CGA has been formally tested in a number of randomized, controlled trials, so that it now forms part of evidence-based medicine. These trials have shown that, compared with usual care, elderly people—especially those who are frail—achieve many important health outcomes when provided with CGA-based care. For example, they are more likely to be discharged from the hospital without delay, more likely to be functional when discharged and up to a year later, less likely to go to a nursing home, and less likely to die within two years of follow-up.

A thorough CGA, including the standard history and physical examination, typically takes between an hour and an hour and a half to complete, and it can take even longer. This is more than twice the length of many initial consultations with a clinician, and so a CGA requires special effort and commitment on everyone's part. Nevertheless, it represents a reasonable way to come to grips with the needs particularly of frail older people, and in consequence to set appropriate and achievable goals to maintain independence, or to otherwise intervene for the benefit of the patient.

Kenneth Rockwood

See also Balance and Mobility; Day Hospitals; Frailty; Functional Ability; Geriatric Medicine; Multidisciplinery Team; Surgery in Elderly People.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Philip, I., ed. Assessing Elderly People in Hospital and Community Care London: Farrand Press, 1994.

Rockwood, K.; Silvius, J.; and Fox, R. "Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment: Helping Your Elderly Patients Maintain Functional Well-being." Postgraduate Medicine 103 (1998): 247–264.

Rockwood, K.; Stadnyk, K.; Carver, D.; Mac-Pherson, K.; Beanlands, H. E.; Powell, C.; Stolee, P.; Thomas, V. S.; and Tonks, R. S. "A Clinimetric Evaluation of Specialized Geriatric Care for Frail Elderly People." Journal of the American Geriatric Society 48 (9) 2000: 1080–1085.

Assessment

Reformers

Ever critical of standardized testing as the sole means of measuring ability in students, countless educational reformers continued the mantra that assessments should be performance-based, that authentic methods of assessment were crucial. Noted assessment researcher Grant Wiggins said in his dynamic work, Understanding by Design (1998), "If tests determine what teachers actually teach and what students will study for—and they do—then test those capacities and habits we think are essential and test them in context." And yet, standardized tests, whether administered on a district or national level, continued to be the norm in terms of not only measuring student abilities, but also in measuring schools. Principals routinely bemoaned the fact that local newspapers published standardized test scores in a format that was designed to "rank" schools according to their average scores. They knew that the picture of a school's success was much richer than could be shown by a single score, and their attitudes mirrored the sentiments of reformers who fought for similar changes in the evaluation of students.

SAT

The Coalition of Essential Schools founder, Ted Sizer, in the article "Telling Silences" from the January 1996 Education Digest said, "The measures on which we ultimately depend have to plumb well what we do in fact value. What we care about-the long term intellectual habits and resourcefulness of every citizen-may be difficult to assess, indeed impossible to assess in familiar ways; but to persist with 'high stakes' testing that does not address these areas, while pretending it does, is indefensible." Nonetheless, parents across the country demanded valid assessments that "proved" that the schools were doing the job. The most familiar of those measures were Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores used for college admissions. Critics claimed the national exam was an unreliable predictor of future college achievement. Others complained that the SAT measured only narrow skills and that it was too easy for commercial "coaching" firms to tutor students for the test.

A New Look

In the wake of those criticisms (and ones charging racial and gender bias), the College Board approved changes to the SAT. After a three-year study by a panel of fifteen educators, the College Board announced in 1990 that these results would take effect in 1994:

1. On the math section of the test, the number of multiple-choice questions was reduced to fifteen, rather than twenty, quantitative comparisons. Some ten open-ended questions were added, to which students were required to provide their own answers. In addition, students were permitted to use calculators on the test for the first time.
2. On the verbal section, a set of twenty-five questions that had required students to identify word opposites, or antonyms, was dropped. More questions on reading comprehension were added, and the reading passages on which those questions were based were longer.
3. The College Board rejected a proposal that would have added a mandatory, twenty-minute essay section to the test. Some critics had argued that a written essay would be unfair to blacks and to Hispanics and Asian Americans who were not native English speakers. Instead, the board created a written essay as one of the options in its achievement test series.
4. The SAT was increased to two hours and fifty minutes (up from its former two hours and thirty minutes) and was renamed the Scholastic Assessment Test. It continued to be scored on a scale that ranged from two hundred to eight hundred on each section.
5. The verbal and math changes on the SAT also affected the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) which was given as a prelude to the SAT and was used to award National Merit Scholarships.

THE UNION NON-MERGER

In 1998 an historic event captured the attention of the educational world. The two largest labor unions in the field, the 2.3 million-member National Education Association (NEA) and the 980,000-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT) considered merging into one solitary union. The merger would have melded two immense national organizations, as well as the state and local groups, into one "unified voice for America's teachers." The proposal, which required a two-thirds majority, was soundly defeated by the NEA Assembly delegates in New Orleans on 4 July 1998 by a 5,624 to 4,091 vote.

Why wouldn't teachers prefer to have a stronger voice in bargaining and lobbying cases? Some analysts suggested that the two groups were too far apart structurally and demographically. Others felt that the affiliation that the AFT had with the strong labor union, the AFL-CIO, was not in keeping with the concept of an education "profession." Still others argued that few teachers would be affected by the merger since the NEA was the dominant factor in most state politics.

The issue, however, stayed alive despite the defeat. The AFT approved the measure by a 97 percent vote, and many state-level organizations planned mergers. The increased emphasis on school choice, privatization, and outsourcing continued to point to a need for a single unified front for the nation's teachers.

Source:

Bruce S. Cooper, "Merging America's Teachers Unions," American Education Annual: Trends and Issues in the Educational Community, edited by Mary Alampi and Peter M. Comeau (Detroit: Gale, 1999).

Zappardino

Despite the changes, the SAT remained under attack. Pamela Zappardino, the executive director of FairTest, said that even though women tended to perform better than men in high school courses, they scored consistently lower on standardized tests. Research has shown that both the questions and the structure of standardized tests may be biased against women, she said. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based group advocated

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

eliminating standardized tests as a college-entrance requirement-a step 235 four-year colleges and universities have taken, "When you try to reduce a person down to two or three numbers," Ms. Zappardino said, "by necessity you cannot have a fair system."

Student Selectivity

When popular magazines began ranking colleges, such as the ones found in U.S. News & World Report y critics again condemned the use of numbers to rank schools. Whereas the magazine staff used a combination of criteria to develop the ranking, SAT scores of incoming freshmen were among those numbers used. High-school counselors complained that some families use the rankings as the only decision-making tool in deciding on college applications. College admission counselors also rebuffed the ratings. Rae Lee Siporin, the director of admissions for the University of California at Los Angeles, bashed the U.S. News & World Report ranking system for its use of a "student selectivity" rating. "What does selectivity have to do with the quality of your institution?" she asked. A large applicant pool might say something about a school's immediate popularity, such as whether it won the Rose Bowl or the national basketball championship, she said, "but I'm not sure how that makes you a qualitatively better institution." The magazine rankings grew in popularity, however, prompting versions that dealt with specific types of graduate schools and other programs.

States

As the national educational community tries to align with the growing support for standards and accountability, states across the nation are devising their own standardized tests to measure the degree to which students have met their established standards. As more high-stakes tests are required, and as teacher performance, student graduation or promotion, or even school and district autonomy are determined by these tests, the pressure to "teach to the test" increases. In one specific instance, a group of high-achieving eleventh graders in Chicago's top-ranked Whitney Young High School purposefully failed portions of the Illinois Goal Assessment Program, sending a letter to the principal: "We refuse to feed into this test-taking frenzy." It was the fourth in a battery of standardized tests the students were required to take that school year. The students complained that real learning is being shoved aside while teachers focus on boosting test scores. In polls, however, these tests win wide public support despite a fear that too much time teaching to the test crowds out creative thinking and puts too much emphasis on facts regurgitation.

Rethinking Schools.

Some critics argue that standardized tests are attempting to do too much. Defining the purpose of the assessment is critical to determining which assessment should be used and when. "For example, an assessment designed to evaluate how well a school, overall, is teaching its students to read should not be used to decide whether a particular student should or should not be promoted to fourth grade. Furthermore, any assessment should ultimately serve, and not undercut, the primary goal of helping the student," claimed Bob Peterson and Monty Neill in the Spring 1999 issue of Rethinking Schools.

Sources:

Jeanne Ponessa, "College Rankings Rankle Counselors, Admissions Offices," Education Week on the WEB, 22 November 1995, Internet website.

Ponessa, "Math and Verbal Scores Up on Revamped SAT," Education Week on the WEB, 6 September 1995, Internet website.

ASSESSMENT

The process by which the financial worth of property is determined. The amount at which an item is valued. A demand by the board of directors of a corporation for the payment of any money that is still owed on the purchase of capital stock. The determination of the amount of damages to be awarded to a plaintiff who has been successful in a lawsuit. The ascertainment of the pro rata share of taxes to be paid by members of a group of taxpayers who have directly benefited from a particular common goal or project according to the benefit conferred upon the individual or his or her property. This is known as a special assessment. The listing and valuation of property for purposes of fixing a tax upon it for which its owner will be liable. The procedure by which theinternal revenue service, or other government department of taxation, declares that a taxpayer owes additional tax because, for example, the individual has understated personal gross income or has taken deductions to which he or she is not entitled. This process is also known as a deficiency assessment.

assessment (ă-ses-mĕnt) n.
1. the first stage of the nursing process, in which data about the patient's health status is collected and from which a nursing care plan may be devised.

2. an examination set by an examining body to test a candidate's theoretical and practical nursing skills.