States can afford higher-quality assessments by reallocating the money they currently spend on tests, according to a new report.
It argues that states can replace as many as half the multiple-choice items on their current tests with essays and performance items without spending more than they currently do on testing, and they’d get assessments that offer good learning experiences for students and valuable feedback for teachers.
In the new study, co-authors Linda Darling-Hammond and Frank Adamson of Stanford University detail several kinds of cost savings that could be mined to support an assessment system that leans more heavily on performance tasks. One would be efficiencies realized through state collaborations like the two consortia that are developing tests for the common standards. Another would be computer delivery and scoring.
