State Boards' Leaders Call for Assessments Bearing Consequences

By Millicent Lawton

State assessments of student achievement should have consequences for the students who take them and the schools that give them, a report from state education leaders says, but test results should not be the only criterion used to make such judgments.

Moreover, the report issued last week says, states should use several tests to measure learning, mixing traditional multiple-choice tests with so-called performance assessments, which ask students to write a response or perform an activity to show what they know and are able to do.

: In the report by a group of state school board members from the National Association of State Boards of Education, the officials urge their colleagues toward steps many of them have been reluctant to take. Currently, 26 states rely entirely, or nearly so, on multiple-choice tests to measure student knowledge and skills in all subjects, excluding tests of writing, according to the study released at NASBE's annual conference Oct. 16-18...