This morning the whole process seemed so simple. I planned to start a series of short essays meant to define the need for assessment standards to supplement The Common Core State Standards. The assessment standards, I was going to argue, would give much needed guidance to educators and test-development professionals regarding the assessment of the common core standards. I planned to start by defining the difference between content and assessment standards. Then I was going to discuss how the writers of The Common Core State Standards intended to have separate assessment standards developed. Finally I was going to make my case for the necessity of separate assessment standards. As I prepared to write I soon discovered that this plan would have to be scrapped.
There is a need for additional information about the assessment of the common core standards. However, what I discovered today was that developing assessment standards was not an appropriate method to provide this additional information. When I started looking into the notion of separate assessment standards I was unable to reconcile the idea with the need for alignment. Standards-based tests, like those being used to fulfill the requirements of The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, must be aligned to the standards that the test proposes to measure. There are many issues of alignment, but the fundamental question is, “Does each item align to one standard (or some number of standards)?” Evidence of alignment is collected and made available during the development of a new assessment. Assessment standards, In this context, would create an extra link in the alignment chain and potentially weaken the alignment evidence.
I have come to conclude that additional information about assessment of The Common Core State Standards should come from the development of assessment designs. An assessment design describes the number, type, and frequency of testing as well as the number and types of items within each test. The goal of an assessment design is to define the assessments and items that will need to be developed. The assessment designs developed by the consortia receiving federal money from The Race to the Top Comprehensive Assessment System Competition, as well as competing designs provided by interested parties, will provide the context needed to bring into focus what assessment will look like in the common core landscape.
I intend to start exploring the elements of an effective assessment design for the common core standards. I will start by defining a new term that has become popular over the past couple of years. In the meantime, share with me what you think is important in assessing the common core standards. What should we keep doing? What should we stop doing? What should we do differently?