Standards and Assessments

What Does the Legislation Say About Standards and Assessment? With the reauthorization of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1994, the old standardized testing system for Title I students, which relied upon multiple choice, norm referenced tests was overhauled. Though the old system allowed for comparison of results across the country, the tests had little meaning for teaching and learning decisions at the state and local level.

With the new Title I of the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994, for the first time Title I programs are required to teach children to the same state content standards and student performance standards as all children, and to evaluate the progress of these schools and students using the same assessments used with all students. The intent of the legislation was to ensure that the curriculum taught Title I students was not divorced from the whole school curriculum. Following are some key points related to standards and assessment within Title I. The performance of Title I children will be judged according to the same state standards that apply to all children. If Title I students are assisted in areas in which the state has not developed standards, the state must develop a strategy to ensure that these students are taught the same content and skills as other students. Title I allows states to permit local educational agencies to establish their own standards, assessments and definitions of adequate yearly progress. States that opt for "local control" must ensure that an LEA's standards and assessments are at least as challenging as state standards and assessments, particularly with LEAs that have large numbers of disadvantaged students. Under Title I, the state's student performance standards must describe three levels of performance­ advanced, proficient and partially proficient. These levels relate directly to how well students are mastering the skills and acquiring the knowledge in the state's content standards. Title I students are to be assessed, to the extent possible, using the same assessment systems used with other students, ensuring that Title I students are not held to lower standards. Title I requires that Title I students be tested at least once in the following grade spans 3- 5, 6-9, and 10-12. Title I encourages states to develop and adopt assessments that measure higher-order thinking skills, including alternative assessments such as portfolios, open-ended questions, hands-on tests, etc. For Title I purposes, states must have full-scale, technically valid assessments for math and reading/language arts by school year 2000-2001. Technical criteria for assessments include: standards for validity and reliability, providing special accommodations to allow for the inclusion of linguistically diverse and special needs students, involving multiple measures, providing individual student reports, and allowing for the disaggregation of data. Under Title I, LEAs and schools are allowed to use additional, locally selected tests to evaluate student performance and use other local indicators to determine the success or failure of their schools. (Sources of information: Manasevit, L.M. & Cowan, K.T. (1995), Great Expectations: Understanding the New Title I, American Association of School Administrators, Arlington, VA, T: 703-528-0700; Education Funding Research Council (1997), Title I Handbook, Washington, DC, T: 202-739-9578. For more information on either of these documents, contact the organizations indicated.)