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NYS Assessments
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MCSBA believes that high-quality curriculum-based
assessments are an
essential part of the instructional process.
Such state assessments must be--
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RELEVANT: |
Therefore, state tests must be:
* Clearly aligned to the curriculum standards;
* Valid measures of curriculum standards;
* Structured so as not to be a barrier for obtaining cultural fairness;
* Constructed and scaled by in-service practitioners, teachers
currently in the field,
as well as psychometricians.
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USEFUL: |
Therefore
state tests must be:
* Consistent in their
construction and scoring.
* Comparable across
courses in terms of standards for passing
and scaling of
scores.
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Graded in a timely manner so that scoring information will be
available to
districts for identifying individual student
needs
and for planning curriculum
improvements.
* Public reporting of
assessment results at the state level needs
to be accurate and explainable in
laymen’s language.
*The encroachment on student-teacher
contact time by the demands
of NYS test taking and scoring must be
minimized.
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APPROPRIATE: |
Therefore,
the State testing program should:
* Provide permanent
provisions with clearly defined criteria for
implementation for children with disabilities;
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Adjust the length of state tests to be age appropriate for test takers.
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Minimize the number of assessments in grades 4 and 8, focusing
limited SED
resources for
test development on English
Language Arts and math only.
* When
an exam is to be materially changed or new grading
standards will apply,
schools should be informed of the
impending changes in time to prepare appropriately.
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All New York State standards together work to define
a high-quality education
for our students.
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There are 18 Learning Standards within the New
York State Standards program, many which cannot be measured by paper and pencil
tests. We need local flexibility and
discretion in determining how well our students are performing on these
important outcomes of schooling.
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