Test-Based Accountability and Student Achievement: An Investigation of Differential Performance on NAEP and State Assessments / Brian A. Jacob.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacob, Brian A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w12817.

NBER working paper series no. w12817

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Test-Based Accountability and Student Achievement

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.

Summary:

This paper explores the phenomenon referred to as test score inflation, which occurs when achievement gains on "high-stakes" exams outpace improvements on "low-stakes" tests. The first part of the paper documents the extent to which student performance trends on state assessments differ from those on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). I find evidence of considerable test score inflation in several different states, including those with quite different state testing systems. The second part of the paper is a case study of Texas that uses detailed item-level data from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and the NAEP to explore why performance trends differed across these exams during the 1990s. I find that the differential improvement on the TAAS cannot be explained by several important differences across the exams (e.g., the NAEP includes open-response items, many NAEP multiple-choice items require/permit the use of calculators, rulers, protractors or other manipulative). I find that skill and format differences across exams explain the disproportionate improvement in the TAAS for fourth graders, although these differences cannot explain the time trends for eighth graders.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2007.