Askwith Debates – Pass/Fail: How Test-Based Accountability Stacks Up

source: HarvardEducation     2016年12月5日
**Note the 6 p.m. start time.**
Speakers:
• Mitchell Chester, Ed.M.'88, Ed.D.'91, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
• Rebecca Holcombe, Ed.M.'90, Ed.D.'16, Secretary of Education, Vermont
• Thomas Kane, Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Economics, HGSE
• Daniel Koretz, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education, HGSE
Moderator: Andrew Ho, Professor of Education, HGSE
Test-based accountability has been a cornerstone of education policy in the United States for decades, and testing now has a tremendous influence on daily life in schools. With the replacement of No Child Left Behind with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states have more leeway than previously to change the ways in which they use testing. This shift provides an ideal time to take stock of the effects of high-stakes testing and to rethink how testing is used. Proponents and skeptics will debate the pros and cons of high-stakes testing. How much has student learning really improved? Can we trust the increases in scores that states and districts and individual schools often report? What have been the effects of high-stakes testing, both good and bad, on the practices of educators? What impact does test-based accountability have on children, families, and teachers?