MYTH 1: If some schools administer performance assessments instead of Regents exams, all schools will want to use the same "escape hatch."
TRUTH: Rather than being an "escape hatch," performance assessment tasks, as used by the New York Performance Standards Consortium, are more challenging than Regents exams. In fact, tasks such as the literary essay, the original science experiment and the research paper not only meet, but exceed state standards.
The Learning Record is an open system of literacy and mathematics assessment, K-12, maintained and monitored by the classroom teacher to provide evidence that students are moving toward agreed upon goals and standards. Parents (and/or other adult mentors) and students themselves contribute evidence for the Record. Teachers summarize and record this information to inform their teaching and to calibrate their interpretations of the standards with others beyond the classroom for accountability purposes.
The Learning Record is a powerful assessment process developed first in England for literacy (reading, writing, speaking, listening) for use with low-income children, many of whom had first languages other than English. For years, U.S. work on the LR was led by the Center for Language in Learning, but sadly it has closed its doors.
American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Psychology in Education and Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory. (1993). Learner-Centered Principles for School Reform. Washington, DC: APA (Office of Psychology in Education, Education Directorate, APA, 750 First St., NE, Washington, DC 20002).
Ascher, C. "Testing Bilingual Students: Do We Speak the Same Language?" PTA Today (March 1991, pp. 7-9).
Discusses cultural and linguistic bias issues in bilingual testing, options for administering tests to bilingual students, and problems associated with these options. Includes a short description of an alternative, "dynamic assessment."