RE: Accountability vs. Testing

You make a good point in raising the distinctions between accountability and testing.  Accountability means that we are responsible for an outcome.  At the same time we have to be careful how we define it.  In a production business, employees are accountable for the quality of their work.  It is the employees responsibility to make sure that they are knowledgeable and skilled about professional.  However, that quality is tempered if the owner/employer doesn't provide quality technical equipment, the best materials, or whatever materials/supplies, environment that enables employee to be productive.  For schools the business model breaks down.  We are dealing with human beings who exist in a complex social context.  Yes teachers should be qualified and continue their professional development.  The district should provide the needed resources for teachers to be successful.  What about resources that are needed to counter poverty and the consquences of it.  I work with an elementary school in which 93% of children live in poverty.  Over 50% are language learners and there is also a 52% mobility rate.  That means that over half the children come and go during the year.  They come to school, from all over the state, performing well below grade level, a host of issues (including health, social/emotional) that require assessment and interventions.  Yet the teachers are held accountable for their success as measured on ONE test.  Having the high stakes sword hanging over their heads pressures them to teach in ways that are not as engaging as they could be.

When we think about assessing student achievement, we need to decide what we mean by achievement (how quality translates into achievement) - is it simply how many facts and skills someone possesses or how they are able to use the information and skills.

Testing should be only one part, a small part, of a comprehensive assessment plan.  The SAT9 as a normed referenced test does not provide information on achievement - its a comparison tool.  Authentic tasks and performances provide useful information about an individual child's growth.  It also provides a way of assessing what is going on in the classroom.