Research Agenda: Assessment and Accountability

One of RAND Education's key goals is to help policymakers judge the performance of the nation's education system. This involves evaluating large-scale tests and exploring new approaches for measuring student achievement, establishing ways to compare the performance of students across states and internationally, interpreting trends in student test scores, and understanding the effects of policies that rely on accountability and assessment.

Our current, and recent, projects in this area include:

• Standards-based accountability in education entails the development of content and performance standards, the administration of assessments aligned with the standards, and the imposition of consequences tied to assessment results. The Implementing Standards-based accountability (ISBA) project is studying the implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind accountability system in three states, California, Georgia and Pennsylvania from 2003 through 2007.
  
• examining systemic reform initiatives (Mosaic II) in science and math to determine whether students learn more when teachers use reform practices--such as cooperative learning groups, inquiry-based activities, and open-ended assessment techniques (Stephen Klein, Brian Stecher, Laura Hamilton)
  
• identifying the social background characteristics that correlate with performance on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in the U.S. and other countries (Daniel Koretz)
  
• convening a national conference on assessment issues (Stephen Klein)
  
• evaluating the utility of state data systems for tracking student progress (Laura Hamilton, Daniel Koretz, Brian Stecher)
  
• evaluating the practice and potential of value-added modeling of education on achievement (Daniel Koretz, Laura Hamilton).
  

Assessment and Accountability | School Reform Evaluation | Teachers and Teaching