- Standardized and other formal assessments
standard, judged to be of high quality (AFT 2000) contains five broad standards, including 10 goals and a total of
29 objectives (Idaho Department of Education, 2005-6).
Alignment of standards, testing and classroom curriculum
The state tests must be aligned with strong content standards in order to provide useful feedback about student
learning. If there is a mismatch between the academic content standards and the content that is assessed then the
test results cannot provide information about students’ proficiency on the academic standards. A mismatch not
only frustrates the students taking the test, teachers, and administrators it undermines the concept of
accountability and the “theory of action” (See box “Deciding for yourself about the research”) that underlies the
NCLB. Unfortunately, the 2006 Federation of Teachers study indicated that in only 11 states were all the tests
aligned with state standards (American Federation of Teachers, 2006).
State standards and their alignment with state assessments should be widely available—preferably posted on the
states websites so they can be accessed by school personnel and the public. A number of states have been slow to do
this.Table 43 summarizes which states had strong content standards, tests that were aligned with state standards,
and adequate documents on online. Only 11 states were judged to meet all three criteria in 2006.
Table 43: Strong content standards, alignment, and transparency: evaluation for each state in 2006 (Adapted
from American Federation of Teachers, 2006).
Standards are
strongTest documents match
standardsTesting documents
online
Alabama +
Alaska + +
Arizona + +
Arkansas +
California + + +
Colorado +
Connecticut
Delaware +
District of Columbia + +
Florida + +
Georgia + +
Hawaii +
Idaho + +
Illinois +