Thank you for the opportunity to address this body today. High Academic Standards Fair assessments aligned with the standards Flexibility at the school level to target resources to their needs Rewards and consequences Effective intervention strategies and Clear definition of who is accountable for what and to whom Testimony and facilitated discussions in this committee have looked at various aspects of these elements for the past few months. Today we ant to address these elements from the viewpoint of the classroom. If the people who are administering, reviewing and discussing the assessments don't understand what they can and cannot accomplish with any specific assessment, there is a high probability that good, well-meaning people will make mistakes.
Serious errors can destroy the very base of the accountability system.
I want to take a minute to talk about a local example of how appropriate use of assessment resulted in real learning for students. The initiative was conducted in Cleveland schools from 1994 through 1999. It provided strong parent and community outreach. Teachers trained through Project TEEM now lead the district's elementary mathematics professional development. Most important - six years of qualitative and quantitative data shows Project TEEM moved student 4th grade mathematics proficiency test scores from the bottom to the top of Cleveland's urban peers.