The Effect of Assesment on Curriculum

The effect of assessment on curriculum:

The states are the entities primarily responsible for the maintenance and operation of public schools. The states are also heavily involved in the establishment, selection, and regulation of curriculum, teaching methods, and instructional materials in their schools. Federal efforts have generally focused on guaranteeing equality of access to educational content rather than the content or purpose of the instruction itself. Other than these affirmative efforts, the federal government has hesitated to establish or control a school's curriculum. Rather, the government's role has been more to encourage schools to modify and improve curriculum. Federal policy makers have long been looking for a way to hold themselves and other public servants accountable for the jobs they do. The only way to do this was to require states to develop standards and assessments to tests these standards. The most notable at this time is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. Dr. Lorraine McDonnell contends that this was done to control curriculum through standardized testing. She also contends that the standardized testing being used favors English and Mathematics leaving Social Studies and Science lagging behind. Dr. McDonnell also contends that this leaves very little time for untested subjects.

Dr. Noel sees assessment as an instrument that could encourage achievement with accountability. Dr. Noel contends that if the curriculum is aligned then assessment test are an excellent measure of student teacher progress. However Dr. Popham believes that this promotes teachers teaching to the test which leaves many subject areas left untaught.

This all too often the case in our public schools, For instance very little chemistry is covered on the TAKS test. In this author's experience one to two months before testing chemistry comes to a grinding halt and TAKS reviewing begins. Absolutely no chemistry is taught for half of the spring semester.

The effect of assessment on teaching and learning:

Dr. Popham in his frontline interview said educators are overwhelmed and teaching to standardized tests instead of teaching the concepts they need to succeed in that class. Dr. Popham also contends that the use of high stakes testing has educators concentrating on test taking stradgdies, such as how to bubble in an answer, rather than the actual material for that particular class. Dr. Popham argues that these are not the right kind of test to use to judge the quality of schooling. "What you want to judge the quality of schooling is a test that measures how well children were taught, not whether they come from a ritzy background." Dr. Popham

Dr. Noel favors testing along with teaching to that test if the test and curriculum have been aligned properly. He argues that if the curriculum is aligned the