As State Assessments Change, How Can We Rethink Comparability and Equity?
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by Ellen Hatfield, Summer 2023 Intern
Introduction to Comparability and Equity
State summative assessments are a tool for helping educators and policymakers improve school programs. These tests are built to analyze test scores and compare student performance among schools of similar populations. The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) law of the No Child Left Behind Act states that public school students must test in reading and math every year between grades 3 and 8, and at least once in high school. Not only are these tests built for comparing performance, but they also indicate whether students are meeting their state’s academic standards. The ultimate goal of these tests and the standards that guide them is to ensure that all students have an equitable education. But as professional assessment consultant Stuart Kahl explains, state tests do not always present reliable subtest scores—e.g., they may only test geometry skills as a measure of mathematics. If the sampling of the test questions is broad, the test may hardly cover what students have learned in school. Therefore, the test scores are not always reliable for making comparisons or decisions on reforming instructional material. How can we accurately compare scores when the tests are not designed to reflect what and how students are learning?
Federal laws that promote fairness and equity become part of the barrier to achieving equity in test taking. The comparability that policymakers seek creates an even standard for test taking, but it does not account for the ways in which classrooms and education in general are changing. “Comparability” as defined by the Center for American Progress, “allows for comparing of test scores, even if students took the test at different times, in different places, and under different conditions.” This definition suggests that not all test settings will be the same, and that the medium of the test has the opportunity to change and still be comparable as long as the same skills are being measured. If these tests reflect what the student is learning and the environment they are learning in, the issue of inequity and skewed test scores could be solved.
Performance-Based Assessments & Through-Year Assessments
Performance-based assessments ignite conversations when it comes to reimaging test taking; the assessments require students to apply the knowledge they have learned in class by performing an open-ended task like creating a project or completing an activity. Performance-based assessments offer a more objective way of measuring learning; rather than a test question having one correct answer, student progress is measured by multiple outcomes. This format promotes diverse thinking and self-directed learning skills. These assessments would require some schools to reorganize their plans of instruction, and it would take an effort to standardize a scoring rubric if this style of testing was adopted. However, performance-based assessments allow for a more holistic, and therefore more equitable, view of students’ skills and how they apply them in a physical setting.
Through-year assessments also have been piloted in an effort to explore new testing strategies and eliminate high-stakes end-of-year assessments. Interim tests on information that students have recently studied would prepare them for the end-of-year exam. These tests would allow teachers to view more immediate results in student progress while still receiving collective end-of-year results. The ability for a teacher to intervene in student progress has the potential to raise end-of-year test scores, but it also gives them the ability to assess where students need attention during the school year, which could promote educational equity.
Comparing Test Scores
Performance-based assessments and through-year assessments will perform better in some states than others, and it will take time to appropriately standardize the methods of scoring. Once these tests have an accurate rubric for measuring standards and specific skills, they can be compared to other scores from different forms of tests. The Center for American Progress suggests that concordance tables be used to compare and equate scores from different tests. States have used concordance tables in the past when yearly summative tests changed from one year to another; these tables measure the same skills or constructs between two different tests. Concordance tables do not convert test scores between tests, but they do offer the closest equivalent and make room for comparison.
Publishing Solutions Group
Publishing Solutions Group provides various services and support that have developed performance-based assessments and through-year assessments. We produce high-quality test items for K-12 and adult learner programs like tech-enhanced multiple-choice items, essays, performance tasks, and scoring rubrics. Our background in working with assessments gives us significant market insight on strategy and potential changes with assessments in the future. Our expertise also allows us to develop the materials needed to make assessments equitable for students and comparable for educators.
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Conclusion
Reimagining the way standardized testing works can promote equity on different levels, even if the tests take different forms. How test scores will be compared will also change, but developing technologies like concordance tables offer a solution to issues with comparability and equity with test formats.
Links
References
Jimenez, Laura and Ulrich Boser. “Future of Testing in Education: The Way Forward for State Standardized Tests,” Center for American Progress, 16 September 2021, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/future-testing-education-way-forward-state-standardized-tests/.
Kahl, Stuart. “What Federally Mandated State Tests Are Good For (And What They Aren’t),” EducationWeek, 5 May 2021, https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-what-federally-mandated-state-tests-are-good-for-and-what-they-arent/2021/05.
Long, Cindy. “Standardized Testing is Still Failing Students,” neaToday, 3 September 2023, https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/standardized-testing-still-failing-students
Pappas, Christopher. “What is Performance-Based Assessment?,” eLearning Industry, 24 June 2023, https://elearningindustry.com/what-is-performance-based-assessment.
“What Are Through Year-Assessments? Emerging Trends in Statewide Assessments,” DQC, 5 May 2022, https://dataqualitycampaign.org/what-are-through-year-assessments/.