New Testing Regime

Many of the tests currently in use provide limited insight into the learning status of students, often failing to assess higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills.  In addition, different forms and schedules of assessment are needed to pro­vide teachers and administrators timely information about the progress of students during the year. Since students and schools face new performance requirements, Operation Public Education (OPE) is committed to the development of assessment tools that can adequately support the rigorous improvement expectations of No Child Left Behind and state-level account­ability programs.  The twin challenges of the 21st cen­tury ¾ the fierce com­pet­i­tive­ness of the glo­bal econ­omy and the growing complexity of our democratic society ¾ require nothing less.

As an initial step toward achieving these goals, OPE began a project to develop a model Request for Proposals (RFP) that can be used by both state departments of education and local school districts to solicit support services in the development and effective use of productive assessments. This new approach must maximize student learning through the application of assessment that is frequent, free of judgment, aligned directly to state content standards at the appropriate level of cognitive complexity, tailored specifically to deliver differentiated instruction based on real-time data of what each student knows and can do and where each student needs to be tomorrow, next week and next month on the way to college and work.  Such a system provides continuous improvement opportunities for teachers and students.

The RFP document will outline requirements for the creation and use of high quality summative assessments that align closely with rigorous standards balanced with sound short-cycle, benchmark or formative assessments and with high-quality day-to-day classroom assessments, all working in harmony to maximize student confidence, motivation, and achievement.  All must arise from the same foundation of state standards if they are to be mutually reinforcing.  Each standard must be deconstructed into local curriculum and classroom-level achievement targets that form the scaffolding upon which students will climb on their journey up to each standard.  Only then can teachers and their students remain constantly aware of what comes next in their learning as achievement grows.

Of particular importance to this project, is the development of formative or interim assessments that are linked to the high stakes summative tests now required under NCLB. Until recently, the market size for formative assessments has been speculative. Early RFPs issued from large cities were frequently withdrawn rather than awarded, suggesting that costs exceeded district expectations or capabilities. With states like Wyoming including formative assessments as part of their larger assessment system RFP, the expectations from customers are being clarified and the price discussion around these products will eventually stabilize. This expanding market is based in part on the perception of formative assessment as part of the solution for failing schools and closing the achievement gaps between population subgroups. The remaining "unknowns" include issues around the integration of formative and summative tests, infrastructure requirements and research demonstrating value of more frequent testing. The RFP initiative, undertaken by OPE, hopes to define the ideal system requirements. 

By consistently applying the criteria for productive assessment systems, educational leaders will create an expectation for the measurement community to provide programs, instruments, and procedures that better meet their needs as they support student learning.  Local and state school leaders will force an industry dominated by a traditional and restricted vision of assessment formats and roles to realize the limits of that vision and thus to widen the scope of our collective thinking about what constitutes sound assessment practice.    

BACKGROUND

On March 7, 2005 at the invitation of OPE, an influential group of test publishers met in Philadelphia to begin this work. The attendees agreed to participate in several working groups each of which would address one aspect of this new vision for an integrated K-12 assessment system.

Lead partners in this effort included Margaret Jorgenson, Senior Vice President, Product Research and Innovation, Harcourt Assessment, Inc., Margaret Raymond, a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Director of CREDO (Center for Research on Educational Outcomes), and Brian Gong, Executive Director of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment. Dr. Gong took the reports from each of the working groups and created a draft RFP.
 
The draft was then sent to all other participants for their comments. OPE is currently reviewing these comments and will incorporate them into a second draft. Once the RFP is completed OPE will begin sharing it with a wider audience, which will include, state assessment personnel, education and testing associations and key state and district policy makers. Our ultimate goal is that these key stakeholders will endorse this RFP and urge states and large school dis­tricts to issue ones that are con­sis­tent with the criteria it outlines. We believe that developing a wider base of support will create a market demand for innovative products and services not currently being provided by the nation’s leading test publishers. This will become a wake-up call for this industry signaling that their customers are not satisfied with the status quo.  This RFP is intended to change the competitive landscape of the assessment industry and to cause innovations in product and process to better meet the needs of teachers, administrators, students, and parents.  To meet the requirements outlined in this RFP, the nation’s leading test publishers, who partici­pa­ted in this project, will have market-driven incentives to develop the new assess­ment systems that America now requires.

Papers offering examples consistent with goals of RFP Initiative:

“Crafting Curricular Aims for Instructionally Supportive Assessment,” prepared by W. James Popham

“Illustrative Language for a State-Level Request for Proposals to Develop Instructionally Supportive Accountability Tests for the No Child Left Behind Act,” prepared by W. James Popham

List of all RFP Work Group members

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