Papers by Marguerite Clarke
Theory Into Practice, 2003
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of what matters most for building a more effe... more The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of what matters most for building a more effective student assessment system. The focus is on systems for assessing student learning and achievement at the primary and secondary levels. The paper extracts principles and guidelines from countries' experiences, professional testing standards, and the current research base. The goal is to provide national policy makers, education ministry officials, development organization staff, and other stakeholders with a framework and key indicators for diagnosis, discussion, and consensus building around how to construct a sound and sustainable student assessment system that will support improved education quality and learning for all.
Established in October 2008, the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) program has been a c... more Established in October 2008, the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) program has been a collaboration of the Government of the Russian Federation and the World Bank that focuses on improving education quality in low-income countries. The READ trust fund was a part of this program, with an amount of United States (U.S.) 32 million dollars to be executed over a seven-year period, 2008 to 2015. The READ trust fund’s main objective was to help low-income countries improve their student learning outcomes through the design, implementation, and use of robust systems for student assessment. This report contains a detailed account of program achievements in each of these areas from 2008 to 2015. Together, the different sections provide a complete picture of program results and demonstrate the significant impact of the program.
World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021
Primer on Large-Scale Assessments of Educational Achievement, 2021
For full text: . Information Analyses (070) Opinion Papers (120) Reports Evaluative (142) MF01/PC... more For full text: . Information Analyses (070) Opinion Papers (120) Reports Evaluative (142) MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
To ensure that its studies are relevant to policy making, the National Board on Educational Testi... more To ensure that its studies are relevant to policy making, the National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy (NBETPP) follows certain guidelines. These are discussed in the hope that they will make the work of NBETPP more understandable and useful. The first guideline is that to be policy relevant, research must take account of the concerns of policy formulators and reformulators, those who react to or reshape the policy. Research must take into account the full range of factors affecting a policy and lay out possibilities for action. A second guidelines is that studies of testing must describe in detail what actually takes place in testing programs to ensure that policymakers and those who implement policy have common starting points. The third guideline affirms that to be policy relevant, testing studies must generate realistic policy options for incremental change and present them along with policy alternatives. The fourth guideline indicates that research on testing policy must try to forecast the implications of policy options so that those who formulate, implement, and evaluate public policy programs will appreciate the dynamics of various policy alternatives. (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. alrio S, e c'fZ tt, 75, 5 55/ 44.
It is not enough for children to be enrolled in school and sitting in classrooms. For the benefit... more It is not enough for children to be enrolled in school and sitting in classrooms. For the benefits of education to accrue, children must be learning. But how do we measure whether children are learning and what do we do with that information? As governments and development partners strive to improve student learning outcomes, it is vital to develop strong systems for assessing student learning. The importance of learning assessment is linked to growing evidence that learning drives prosperity. Research finds a one standard deviation increase in scores on international assessments of reading and mathematics is associated with a 2 percent point increase in annual growth rates of GDP per capita (Hanushek and Woessmann, 2007). Research on assessment reveals that the right kinds of assessment activities, and the right uses of data generated by those activities, can contribute to better outcomessuch as better learning and better informed policy decisions (Clarke, 2011). Evidence on assessment shows:
This paper examines two common criticisms of the method that "U.S. News and World Report" used in... more This paper examines two common criticisms of the method that "U.S. News and World Report" used in its annual rankings of the academic quality of colleges and graduate schools. There are constant changes to the formula that make it impossible to interpret yearly shifts in a school's relative ranking in terms of change in its academic quality and the overly precise nature of the scores used to rank schools. This paper does not judge the overall concept of academic quality rankings and the validity of different indicators; it focuses on the extent to which methodological issues may affect the interpretation of the "U.S. News" rankings. To gauge the changes in ranking formulas, four types of change were identified and tracked over 6 years: (1) changes in the weight assigned to an indicator; (2) the removal of an indicator; (3) the addition of an indicator; and (4) changes in an indicator's definition or methodology. Five graduate discipline rankings and two undergraduate rankings (national university and national liberal arts) were examined. Analyses show that it is generally not possible to interpret year-to-year shifts in a school's rank in terms of its academic quality. It is possible, depending on the ranking, to make cross-year comparisons of a school's relative performance on between one-third and three-quarters of the individual indicators used. Results of the error analyses call into question the use of overall scores to assign schools to individual ranks. Recommendations are made for improving the interpretability and usefulness of the "U.S. News" rankings. Current "U.S. News" College and Graduate School Ranking Methodology is appended. (Contains 15 tables and 15 references.) (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
This paper examines four aspects of current high stakes testing that impact minority students and... more This paper examines four aspects of current high stakes testing that impact minority students and others traditionally underserved by American education. Data from research conducted at Boston College over 30 years highlight 4 issues: high stakes, high standards tests do not have a markedly positive effect on teaching and learning; high stakes tests do not motivate the unmotivated; authentic high stakes assessments are not a more equitable way to assess the progress of students who differ in race, culture, native language, or gender; and high stakes testing programs have been shown to increase high school dropout rates, particularly among minority populations. The paper emphasizes the need to carefully monitor the four issues. Though raising educational standards and improving educational quality in American schools is important, efforts to foster academic achievement must involve more than simply setting demanding standards and mandating examinations that are referenced to them. The task remains to identify strategies for achieving the desirable reform objectives efficiently and effectively without having a negative impact on any subpopulation of students. An appendix presents: comparability of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Population 3 coverage index and data on dropouts in the United States. (Contains 59 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Assessment in Education Principles Policy Practice, 1997
To ensure that educational tests do the least harm and bring the greatest good to the education o... more To ensure that educational tests do the least harm and bring the greatest good to the education of elementary and secondary school students, it is important that parents, teachers, educational administrators, and policy makers be actively involved in test construction and use. The purpose of this Statement is to provide a checklist of some components of large-scale testing programs and the choices they represent. This first part of the Statement describes six basic building blocks of state testing programs: (1) stakes levels (high, medium, or low); (2) performance standards; (3) information dissemination; (4) involvement of teachers; (5) technical design and data; and (6) range of measures used to assess educational performance. The second part demonstrates with two simple examples how these building blocks can be put together to form two very different state testing programs. The first scenario is essentially a developmental approach to learning and assessment, while the second scenario is a joint political and educational approach to setting educational standards and assessing educational outcomes. The six building blocks that are highlighted reflect the main dimensions along which current state testing programs differ and around which most debate and controversy occur. (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
World Bank, Aug 18, 2011
The purpose of this paper is to help countries understand some of the key principles and characte... more The purpose of this paper is to help countries understand some of the key principles and characteristics of an effective student assessment system. The focus is on assessment of student learning and achievement at the K-12 level. 1 The paper extracts principles and guidelines from countries' experiences, professional testing standards, and the current research base to provide policy makers, development organization staff, and others with a framework and key indicators for diagnosis, discussion, and consensus-building around how to construct a sound student assessment system that supports improved quality and student learning.
College and University, 2004
In order to understand the roles of test scores and diversity characteristics (including race and... more In order to understand the roles of test scores and diversity characteristics (including race and ethnicity) in the admission process, National Board researchers interviewed admissions directors who worked at selective public and private institutions are well as admissions consultants in the summer and fall of 1999. This report presents an overview of the roles that test scores and diversity characteristics play at the different stages of the admission process, as identified by the interviewees. The overarching theme is the variety of ways in which selective institutions use test score and diversity information, from tools for marketing and recruitment to information for admissions decision making to foci for support services on campus. Also presented are the strategies that interviewees identified for balancing the effects of these roles on the academic and racial/ethnic composition of the applicant, admitted, enrolled, and retained student body. The report also explores some of the options that colleges have in their use and interpretation of test score and diversity information, and it presents some suggestions about colleges might begin to think about the roles of test scores and diversity characteristics of the admission process. Appendixes contain two interview protocols. (Contains 21 references.) (SLD)
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Papers by Marguerite Clarke