NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
ERIC Number: EJ975123
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Apr-18
Pages: 2
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0277-4232
EISSN: N/A
Higher Ed. Gets Voting Rights on Assessments
Gewertz, Catherine
Education Week, v31 n28 p1, 14 Apr 2012
A group of states that is designing tests for the common academic standards has taken a key step to ensure that the assessments reflect students' readiness for college-level work: It gave top higher education officials from member states voting power on test-design questions that are closest to the heart of the college-readiness question. At its quarterly meeting on April 3, the governing board of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) voted unanimously to give members of its advisory committee on college readiness voting power on four issues: (1) how to describe the expected performance levels on the tests; (2) who will set the cutoff scores for the tests; (3) what evidence will be used to decide the cutoff scores; and (4) what the cutoff scores will be. The move puts the highest-ranking officials from one college or university system in most of PARCC's 24 member states at the voting table, alongside its governing board--the K-12 schools chiefs from each member state--when it comes to the most pivotal questions about crafting tests that reflect college readiness. PARCC's decision illustrates the importance that states are placing on higher education's embrace of the common-standards tests as proxies for college readiness. Colleges and universities pledged support to the idea. But their willingness to actually use the final tests as proxies for readiness--to let students skip remedial work and go right into entry-level, credit-bearing courses--is considered pivotal to the success of the common-standards initiative, which rests on the idea that mastery of those expectations will prepare students for college study.
Editorial Projects in Education. 6935 Arlington Road Suite 100, Bethesda, MD 20814-5233. Tel: 800-346-1834; Tel: 301-280-3100; e-mail: customercare@epe.org; Web site: http://www.edweek.org/info/about/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A