Research Library
Windows on Achievement and Inequality
Author: Barton, Paul, Coley, Richard
Publisher: Policy Information Center, Educational Testing Service
Publication Date: 2008, April
Summary or Abstract: As required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), educators are continuously monitoring whether more or fewer students are scoring at a level termed Proficient. But what about changes in the distribution of scores? Barton and Coley examine what is happening to both top-performing and lower-performing students and how the distribution of scores is changing in the United States. The authors make a case for measuring not just how much students know about math, for example, but how much they learned during the school year. The authors also seek to demystify reported scores by providing examples of the kinds of knowledge and skills that students are likely to be able to demonstrate at particular score levels. They describe the many "windows of achievement" that parents, educators, policymakers, researchers, and the media should be looking through, in order to understand how our students are performing, and what aspects of education warrant further attention.