Benchmark Testing

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Assessment A District’s Experiment: What Happens When Schools Do Less Testing?
Los Angeles Unified will excuse some schools from periodic assessments. Supporters hope it will inspire new ways to measure learning.
Evie Blad, October 3, 2024
6 min read
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Assessment Teachers Say Those Ubiquitous, Every-Few-Months Tests Don't Always Capture What's Taught
The vast majority of schools use them, but not all teachers think they accurately measure student progress.
Sarah Schwartz, August 23, 2023
5 min read
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Assessment Q&A Picking an Interim Assessment? Do This First, Say School Leaders
Two district leaders explain how they evaluate interim assessments—and why having access to external reviews would be "huge."
Sarah Schwartz, July 31, 2023
5 min read
A small group of diverse middle school students sit at their desks with personal laptops in front of each one as they work during a computer lab.
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Assessment ‘Interim’ Tests Are Used Everywhere. Are They Good Measures of Student Progress?
A recent attempt to look under the hood of interim assessments is on hold after several test providers wouldn’t commit to participation.
Sarah Schwartz, July 21, 2023
8 min read
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Assessment Opinion It's Time We Begin Using Assessments to Look Forward, Instead of Back
Schools do not get much value from high-stakes tests. Many are now allowing schools to use better assessments to guide student learning.
Seth Feldman, June 20, 2021
5 min read
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Student Achievement Opinion What Does COVID-19 Learning Loss Actually Mean?
COVID-19 learning loss is a big topic. Unfortunately, there has been limited discussion on specifically what is being lost.
Tommy Thompson, February 10, 2021
6 min read
Assessment Inside a Procurement Dispute in North Carolina
North Carolina officials' switch in reading-test vendors just weeks before the new school year got underway is spotlighting the often murky process of contracts and procurements for K-12 services.
Stephen Sawchuk, August 20, 2019
4 min read
Assessment Opinion The U.S. Education System is Very Inefficient: Fact or Fiction?
Marc Tucker responds to critics of the comparative method of research and details the value that it brings to public policy analysis.
Marc Tucker, February 1, 2018
11 min read
School & District Management Opinion A Stunning Report From the National Conference of State Legislatures
A new report from a bipartisan group of state legislators shows how U.S. states can learn from the world's top performers and build an education system to compete with the very best.
Marc Tucker, August 9, 2016
6 min read
Standards & Accountability Opinion Measuring the Immeasurable: The Schools We Want and the Problem of Assessment
Marc Tucker discusses a recent trip to several Hong Kong schools and how they showed what is possible for delivering a rich and empowering education.
Marc Tucker, March 31, 2016
8 min read
Assessment Opinion Top Performers Offer U.S. Much More Effective Models of Teacher PD
NCEE's groundbreaking research on teacher professional learning was the topic of conversation recently among some of the leading voices in education, including Lily Eskelsen García, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Joshua Starr.
Marc Tucker, January 21, 2016
8 min read
Student Achievement Opinion The Iceberg Effect: A Reply to James Harvey and Charles Fowler
Marc Tucker responds to a recent criticism of international education comparisons.
Marc Tucker, November 19, 2015
5 min read
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Assessment Explainer Types of Assessments: A Head-to-Head Comparison
This chart provides a guide for distinguishing different kinds of student assessments.
Sarah D. Sparks, November 9, 2015
3 min read