Using State Test Data For National Indicators of Education Quality: A Feasibility Study

A feasibility study was contracted to the Center for the Study of Evaluation to explore the methodological and implementation issues of using existing data collected by the states to construct education indicators for state-by-state comparisons of student performance. Included in the study were analyses of the general characteristics of current state testing programs and of the content of currently used state tests; of alternative approaches to linking test results across states to create a common scale for purposes of comparison; and of the availability of auxiliary information about students and schools and its potential use in creating more valid indicators of achievement. A number of recommendations are made about ways to facilitate the use of state data for national comparisons. These recommendations focus on basic preconditions, proposed approaches, pilot study needs, auxiliary information collection and documentation, and strategies for optimizing political, institutional and economic support.