Statement on Alternative Assessment

The main purpose of assessment should be to support student learning. Good assessment systems combine state, district, and classroom assessments to promote district and school improvement and provide information for accountability.

While standardized exams can provide some useful information, their overuse and misuse has become a problem, especially in struggling urban school districts. Too often test scores are used to punish schools and students without holding states and districts accountable for the systemic changes needed to improve student performance and close gaps in achievement and opportunity. High-stakes, standardized multiple choice exams can turn schools into test prep centers that bore the best students and fail to help struggling ones. They also fail to develop the “21st century skills” and personal and social responsibility that our young people need to succeed.

New Jersey must address these concerns as it reforms its assessment system, especially at the high school level. Instead of more high stakes exams for graduation, which increase dropout rates and encourage schools to push out “high needs” students, new end of course exams should be limited to 20% of course grades. Scores on end of course exams should be reported separately to evaluate the effectiveness of specific courses and improve the quality of instruction without making individual exams high stakes for graduation.

Students should also have multiple ways to show what they have learned. Presentations, exhibitions, research projects, and graduation portfolios should be regular parts of the assessment process. The SRA (special review assessment) now used by nearly one of every three urban graduates, should gradually be replaced by performance assessment alternatives that provide multiple pathways to graduation. Districts should be encouraged to develop performance assessments that support challenging learning goals and prepare all students for college and careers.

The NJ Department of Education and the State Board of Education have pledged “as the department phases in competency assessments to replace the various components of the HSPA, there will be an alternative way for students to demonstrate competency.” (http://www.state.nj.us/education/ser/faq/). That pledge must be kept before any new graduation tests are implemented. NJDOE officials should also implement their own recommendation to “consult relevant stakeholders in the early stage of developing alternate pathways to graduation so their approach can be scrutinized through multiple perspectives, preventing unnecessary complications for implementation.” (Center on Education Policy report, November, 2009)

We call on the Administration, the State Board of Education and NJDOE to follow through on these commitments and to make the development of performance assessment alternatives part of a robust secondary reform effort that provides multiple pathways to success for all students.