Publications & Resources

Standards-Led Assessment: Technical and Policy Issues in Measuring School and Student Progress

Feb 1997

Robert L. Linn and Joan L. Herman

Although nearly all 50 states have developed rigorous new standards for what children must be able to do in American public schools, the majority of states have not fully designed and implemented assessment systems to measure those standards. In this paper, researchers discuss many issues related to the “what and why” of standards-led assessment systems, including their multiple purposes, what is new in assessment systems, how states and districts might ensure the quality of new assessments, and key policy and technical issues facing all assessment programs. Coupled with appropriate incentives and/or sanctions–external or self-directed–assessments can motivate students to learn better, teachers to teach better, and schools to be more educationally effective.

Linn, R. L., & Herman, J. L. (1997). Standards-led assessment: Technical and policy issues in measuring school and student progress (CSE Report 426). Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).

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