Discusses the possible disjunct between what is good for large-scale assessment and what is good for teaching and learning. Represents one attempt to "marry" large-scale and classroom perspectives. Presents background and rationale for a new narrative rubric that was designed to support classroom instruction. Presents evidence for the…

A plan for evaluating the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) is presented, which implements the model for Sensible Technology Assessment/Research (STAR). STAR involves interactive participation in the evaluation study by ACOT participants, collateral university researchers, and University of California (Los Angeles) staff to develop a credible,…

Explores issues of whose work is actually being evaluated when raters outside the classroom context make judgments about students based on work composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents. Data from an evaluation of a statewide assessment and a study of scoring elementary school writing portfolios illustrate the issues. (SLD)

Technical questions regarding the reliability and validity of large-scale portfolio assessment were studied which focused on: (1) whether raters can score collections of writing reliably with rubrics designed for single samples; (2) whether ratings derived from different frameworks differ in their capacities to support technically sound…

Without support, financial, organizational and otherwise, the U.S. national IEA writing study would never have been conducted; however, implementation of the study was difficult. Planning for the study and its support commenced in 1980, coterminous with two important occurrences: the National Institute of Education pulled back on its interest in…