The Role of Classroom Assessment in Teaching and Learning. CSE Technical Report.

This paper develops a framework for understanding a reformed view of assessment, in which assessment plays an integral role in teaching and learning. The proposed model is consistent with current assessment reforms being advanced across many disciplines. Three background sections of the report describe: (1) curriculum and psychological theories that have shaped methods of instruction, conceptions of subject matter, and testing methods in the past; (2) a conceptual framework based on new theories and new relationships among curriculum, learning theory, and assessment; and (3) connections between classroom uses of assessment and external accountability systems. The fourth and fifth sections elaborate the model for classroom assessment based on social-constructivist principles, arguing for the substantive reform of assessment and its use in classrooms to support learning. The final section outlines the kinds of research studies that will be needed to help realize a reformed vision of classroom assessment. (Contains 6 figures and 186 references.) (SLD)