Shifting Away from Standardized Tests

In at least two bellwether states, efforts are underway to significantly expand how school quality is measured.  In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment has established a new school-quality framework that includes the many things stakeholders in education actually care about.  “Measuring those elements, while shifting away from standardized tests, we are working to build a new kind of data system—one that captures the things parents and teachers know,” states Jack Schneider, the Consortium’s director of research, in a recent article in Atlantic magazine.  According to Schneider, the California Office for Reforming Education has also begun to significantly expand how school quality is measured.