Group Calls for Radical Changes to Standardized Tests

Washington – Educational assessments should be revamped to help educators improve teaching and learning instead of being narrowly used—and in some cases misused—for purposes of accountability.

That is one of the key ideas that an independent commission proffered Monday as the commission released a new report on what its members envision as a radically transformed “assessment enterprise.”

“We certainly recognize and endorse the use of some type of assessment for accountability,” said Dr. Edmund Gordon, a psychology professor at Yale and Teachers College at Columbia University who serves as chairman of the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education.

“But on our commission,” Gordon said of the commission that is named in his honor, “we most often talked about the possibility that another purpose may be superior, and this is informing and improving teaching and learning, both the processes by which we learn and teach and the outcomes.”

Gordon made his remarks at The George Washington University Monday for the public release of the commission’s technical and public policy reports.

The reports are accompanied by a series of papers that deal with a variety of subjects, from “changing targets” in educational assessments to “the challenges of diversity, equity and excellence.”

The commission is funded and gets administrative support from Educational Testing Service, but Gordon said the commission operates independently of ETS.