Wyoming Signs Innovative Test Contract With Harcourt Assessment

Wyoming officials have approved an unusual testing contract focused on improving instruction in classrooms at the same time that it yields data for accountability purposes.

The new assessment system hews to the guidelines of the Commission on Instructionally Supportive Assessment, released by that national panel in 2001, which called on states to dramatically revamp their testing programs to make them more helpful for classroom teachers. ( "State Tests Don't Support Good Instruction, Panel Says," Oct. 31, 2001.)

“Wyoming’s educational leaders have embarked on a remarkably bold attempt to devise No Child Left Behind tests that provide accurate accountability evidence, yet at the same time nurture improved classroom instruction,” said W. James Popham, a professor emeritus of education at the University of California, Los Angeles, who...