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9 Research Needs
Pages 105-112

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From page 105...
... And neither the differences between them nor the implications of adopting one or the other have been widely recognized. THEORy AND gOALS The incentives theory, as she called the first approach, is that given suf ficient motivation, teachers and other school personnel will develop ways to improve instruction.
From page 106...
... The United States does not have a common curriculum, she suggested, because it has no tradition of relying on subject matter experts in many decisions about education. Psychometricians and policy makers have typically taken the lead in the development of assessments, for example: subject matter experts have generally been involved in some way, but they are not usually asked to oversee the development of frameworks, item development, and the interpretation of results.
From page 107...
... In the near term, this would leave existing assessments unchanged, but, over time, the accumulating body of new modules would eventually lead to a completely transformed system, in which accountability information could be drawn from the assessment components of the innova tive curriculum modules. This approach would allow educators to proceed gradually, as the research to support the development of such modules grows, and also to sidestep many of the political and practical challenges that have hampered past programs.
From page 108...
... She noted that even though most educators and policy makers would agree that writing is one of the most important domains to assess, California cut this assessment first: it did so not for substantive reasons but because the program is expensive and easy to separate form other elements of the assessment program. Politics, she observed, is either the factor that can make things happen or the largest obstacle to progress.
From page 109...
... The capacity to compare results across assessments is already being stretched, and the introduction of more innovative modes of assessment may present challenges that cannot be solved with current procedures. But the policy demand for comparative information suggests a need for new thinking about the precise questions that are important and the kinds of information that can provide satisfactory answers.
From page 110...
... Policy makers are currently working from hypothesized trajectories of how learning in reading, English/language arts, and mathematics progresses from kindergarten through grade 12. These need to be elaborated, and the field needs a plan for gathering data about the validity of the common core standards that are based on them and for improving the descriptions of the trajectories.
From page 111...
... The idea that educators and policy makers should experiment on students may have negative connotations, but many participants also spoke about the criti cal importance of taking innovation step by step and learning from each step. In no other field, one participant pointed out, would policy makers overlook the importance of research and development to something as important as redesigning the assessment system.


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