PARCC Offers "Three Answers to Rick Hess's Questions"
by Frederick M. Hess • Apr 29, 2014 at 9:00 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
A few weeks ago, I asked three questions about how confident we should be that the results of the new, quasi-national, computer-assisted Common Core tests will be valid and reliable enough to support stuff like teacher evaluation and school accountability. These are questions that I'd been publicly asking for several years with little result. I'm pleased to report that, in the last couple days, I've received serious responses from thoughtful executives at PARCC and SBAC. Today I'll be publishing a response from PARCC's Jeff Nellhaus and tomorrow I'll publish one from SBAC's Joe Willhoft. As I'll discuss briefly on Thursday, the responses don't fully satisfy me--I'm eager to ask follow-up questions and seek a few clarifications. But my primary aim was a more transparent discussion about how the Common Core effort is supposed to play out. As I've often said, we know vastly less than we should on this score. For that reason, I want to extend my appreciation to Jeff and Joe for their constructive, reasoned responses. Here's what Jeff Nellhaus, PARCC's director of policy, research, and design, had to say:
By Jeff Nellhaus
In his March 26 blog post, "Three Practical Questions About PARCC & SBAC Testing," Rick Hess raises legitimate questions about how variation in the testing conditions will impact the validity and reliability of the results of PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments. He asks how the PARCC and Smarter Balanced states can assure educators and policymakers that test results are valid and comparable given the variety of testing devices and testing conditions, and the long testing window.
As Director of Policy, Research and Design for PARCC, I take these questions seriously. The assessments have been designed to provide teachers, students, and parents important information about where students are on the road to academic success and readiness for college and careers, and provide information teachers can use to focus (or readjust) instruction to support student learning. But they will also be used in states to determine the extent to which schools and districts are improving student performance, promotion and high PARCC Offers "Three Answers to Rick Hess's Questions" :: Frederick M. Hess:
