Trickling Down

By Continued

Critics of test-based accountability programs have long argued that within a few years of introducing new tests, teachers learn to limit their instruction to what is likely to be assessed--otherwise known as teaching to the test. That strategy will not work with the PACT, Agruso asserts, because students must be able to apply the skills they learned to varying types of questions.

"It is a test based on standards, but the test changes every year," she says. "Teachers must focus on the standards knowing that there will be questions that represent those standards."

The PACT will include multiple-choice questions, as the other tests do. Exit tests will later be administered to high school students. But other types of questions and problems will also be included. Some items will require short explanations, or students will have to show how they solved math problems or be able to complete charts and diagrams. Other questions will require students to write elaborate responses or detail the steps they took to find their answers. On the English/language arts exam, some questions will call for lengthy answers or compositions. Students will be able to take as much time as they need to complete...