Can today's standardized achievement tests yield instructionally useful data?

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Can Today's Standardized Achievement Tests Yield Instructionally Useful Data? Challenges, Promises and the State of the Art

W. James Popham, David C. Berliner, Neal M. Kingston, Susan H. Fuhrman, Steven M. Ladd, Jeffrey Charbonneau, Madhabi Chatterji

Against the backdrop of high stakes assessment policies in the United States (U.S.), this article explores the challenges, promises, and the "state of the art" on designing standardized achievement tests and educational assessment systems that are instructionally useful. Authors deliberate upon the consequences of using inappropriately designed tests, and in particular, tests that are insensitive to instruction, for teacher and/or school evaluation purposes.

http://hub.mspnet.org/index.cfm/27384