What is the Penn State report on validation of local assessments? What did the study show?
On Feb. 25, 2009, Penn State’s College of Education released its study of Pennsylvania school districts’ local graduation assessments. The study was funded by a $275,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Penn State researchers collected the assessments from 418 school districts. The team spent several months reviewing nearly 1,000 assessments used by districts to measure proficiency in math and reading at the high school level using two criteria: whether the assessments measure 11th grade reading and math skills, and whether the assessments are conducted in a way that ensures the integrity of the results. For example, a local assessment that adequately measured 11th grade reading skills would fail the second test if it was made of up of questions that are publicly available on the Internet, or if a student could receive a diploma based on getting credit for passing the course even if he or she fails to demonstrate proficiency in the content. According to the repo
