Assessment and Testing

English language arts professionals believe in the value of a rich and varied curriculum, but such a curriculum is threatened by the restrictive influence of standardized tests.

Since the 1970s, NCTE has repeatedly warned that a preoccupation with large-scale standardized testing leads to the distortion and reduction of curriculum and to unwise expenditure of public funds that could be better spent on teaching programs. This is still NCTE's position today, and it's more relevant than ever.

High-stakes tests often fail to accurately assess students' knowledge, understanding, and capability. Therefore, using any single test to make important decisions--such as graduation, promotion, funding of schools, or employment and compensation of administrators and teachers--is educationally unsound and unethical.

NCTE believes that a wide variety of assessments, such as writing portfolios, oral presentations, and group projects, should be part of a student's school experience and these means of assessment should evaluate both the student and the curriculum.

NCTE believes that

• The primary purpose of assessment is to improve teaching and learning.
• Assessments must be fair and equitable.
• Assessments need to recognize the complex nature of reading and writing.
• The assessment process should involve multiple perspectives and sources of data.
• Parents must be involved as active, essential participants in the assessment process

(Please note that some documents are available in PDF form and Adobe Acrobat is required to open them.)

NCTE Resolutions, Position Statements, and Op-Ed Pieces

On Assessment, 1991

On Urging Reconsideration of High Stakes Testing, 2000

On Testing and Equitable Treatment of Students, 1998

On Testing, 1995

CCCC Position Statement on Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Writing in Digital Environments, 2004

On Grading Student Writing, 1993

On the Development and Dissemination of Alternative Forms of Assessment, 1990

On National Assessment of Educational Progress: Assessment of Reading (NAEP), 1989

On Testing Young Children, 1989

Writing Assessment: A Position Statement (1995, prepared by the Conference on College Composition and Communication)

Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing (1994, prepared by the NCTE/IRA Joint Task Force on Assessment) To order.

"Learning vs. Learning to Take the Test: What's the Difference?" by Leila Christenbury

SLATE Starter Sheets

On Standardized Tests and Assessment Alternatives

The Testing Dilemma

On Student Achievement in Our Public Schools

more

Resources 

Alternatives to Grading Student Writing.  Editor: Tchudi, Stephen.  Evaluating a student's progress as a writer requires striking a delicate balance between the student's needs and the school's needs. This collection of essays offers several innovative options, concluding with ideas for formulating plans of action for introducing grading alternatives in classrooms, schools, and districts.

Assessment as Inquiry: Learning the Hypothesis-Test Process
Editor(s): Diane Stephens, Jennifer Story. This book describes a different way of thinking about one's teaching and students' learning and how to interweave teaching and assessment using authentic assessment techniques.

English Journal, Vol. 91, Num. 1, September 2001:  "Assessing Ourselves to Death"; Vol. 86, Num. 1, January 1997: "Alternative Assessment."

English Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 3, February 2004: "The Trouble with Testing."

English Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 3, February 2002: "Alternative Assessment."

Evaluating Writing: The Role of Teachers' Knowledge about Text, Learning, and Culture. Editor(s): Charles R Cooper, Lee Odell. A sequel to Cooper and Odell's 1977 bestseller, Evaluating Writing, this collection will guide a new generation of writing teachers through the complexities of evaluation and a variety of approaches. These essays assume that we need to distinguish between grading and evaluation.

"Exploring the Impact of a High-Stakes Direct Writing Assessment in Two High School Classrooms." Jean Ketter and Jonelle Pool, Research in the Teaching of English, February 2001, pp. 344-393.

"Genre and the Changing Contexts for English Language Arts." Gunther Kress. Language Arts. July 1999., pp. 461-469.

Language Arts, January 2002: "Teaching________the Test a) to  b) about  c) against  d) all of the above"

"Lessons from a Classroom Teacher's Use of Alternative Literacy Assessment," Bouchereau Bauer and George Ernest Garcia. Research in the Teaching of English, May 2002, pp. 462-494.

Literacy Assessment in Practice: Language Arts. This practical resource addresses classroom teachers’ concerns about using effective methods to assess children’s literacy development.  It provides a comprehensive framework for defining and organizing all the various aspects of literacy that might need to be considered in literacy assessment. It also offers teachers a range of practical ideas to incorporate into the assessment process.

"Looking Back As We Look Forward." Kathleen Blake Yancey.  College Composition and Communication, February 1999, pp. 483-503.

The Portfolio Project:  A Study of Assessment, Instruction, and Middle School Reform.  Terry Underwood. The Portfolio Project is a study of one middle school's move into portfolio assessment practices in response to statewide policy changes in California.

Portfolios in the Writing Classroom. Kathleen Blake Yancey. Portfolios have invigorated English classrooms around the country to such an extent that they are revolutionizing the teaching and assessment of writing. Here classroom teachers from various backgrounds reflect upon how using portfolios has shaped their own teaching. They discuss ways to introduce portfolios into the classroom, different models and assessment practices for portfolio projects, and new kinds of collaboration among students and teachers.

Also:
Gomez, Mary Louise, M. Elizabeth Graue, and Marianne N. Bloch. "Reassessing Portfolio Assessment: Rhetoric and Reality." Language Arts, December 1991, pp. 620-628.

Lamme, Linda Leonard and Cecilia Hysmith.  "One School's Adventure into Portfolio Assessment."  Language Arts, December 1991, pp. 629-640.

Myers, Miles and Elizabeth Spalding. Standards Exemplar Series: Assessing Student Performance Grades K-5; Exemplar Series Grades 6-8; Assessing Student Performance Grades 9-12. NCTE. 1997.

Meetings and Events
Watch for sessions at the NCTE Annual Convention and the CCCC Conference.

Communities
CCCC Committee on Assessment

Other Resources
FairTest - the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, see "How Standardized Testing Damages Education."

Educational Testing Service Research Division - providing research on testing and assessment, see Barton, Paul, E.:  Too Much Testing of the Wrong Kind; Too Little of the Right Kind in K–12 Education.

AlfieKohn.org - an outspoken critic on standardized testing, see  “Practical Strategies to Save Our Schools” and many other articles.

Ancess, Linda; Darling-Hammond, Linda; and Falk, Beverly.  Authentic Assessment in Action:  Studies of Schools and Students at Work (The Series on School Reform).  Teachers College Press, 1995.

Bracey, Gerald.  Put to the Test:  An Educator’s and Consumer's Guide to Standardized Testing.  Phi Delta Kappa International Inc., 2002.

Calfee, Robert C. and Pamela Perfumo. Writing Portfolios in the Classroom: Policy and Practice, Promise and Peril. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1996. 

"Electronic Appeal: Writing Portfolios Go Digital." The Council Chronicle, March 2004. http://www.ncte.org/pubs/chron/news/115623.htm (members only access)

Jennings, Chris. Grant # P116B980621 9/1/1998-8/31/2001/ Access-Retention-Completion, Articulation & School-College Partnerships, Assessment, Writing, sponsored in part by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education. http://www.tcc.edu/faculty/projects/FIPSE/

Kohn, Alfie.  The Schools Our Children Deserve:  Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards.  Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

Leman, Nicholas.  The Big Test:  The Secret History of American Meritocracy.  Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1999.

Meier, Deborah; Kozol, Jonathan; and Cohen, Joshua.  Will Standards Save Public Education?.  Beacon Press, 2000.

National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE). http://www.nsse.org/

Ohanian, Susan.  One Size Fits Few:  The Folly of Educational Standards.  Heinemann, 1999.

Owen, David and Doerr, Marilyn.  None of the Above:  The Truth Behind the SATs.  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999.

Rothman, Robert.  “Taking Aim At Testing.”  The American School Board Journal, February 1996.

Sacks, Peter.  Standardized Minds:  The High Price of America’s Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It.  Perseus Books, 1999.

Stiggins, Richard, J.  “Assessment Literacy For the 21st Century.”  Phi Delta Kappan, November 1995.

Tierney, Robert, J.  “Literacy Assessment Reform:  Shifting Beliefs, Principled Possibilities, and Emerging Practices.”  The Reading Teacher, February 1998.

Wheelock, Anne.  Safe to Be Smart:  Building a Culture for Standards-Based Reform in the Middle Grades.  National Middle School Association, 1998.

Williamson, Michael.  "The Worship of Efficiency: Untangling Theoretical and Practical Considerations in Writing Assessment," Assessing Writing. Volume 1.  Issue 2. 1994, pp. 147-173.

Willis, Scott.  “On the Cutting Edge of Assessment:  Testing What Students Can Do with Knowledge.”  Education Update, June 1996.