Making Sense of Test-Based Accountability in Education

Test-based accountability systems that attach high stakes to standardized test results have raised a number of issues on educational assessment and accountability. Do these high-stakes tests measure student achievement accurately? How can policymakers and educators attach the right consequences to the results of these tests? And what kinds of tradeoffs do these testing policies introduce? This book responds to the growing emphasis on high-stakes testing and offers recommendations for more-effective test-based accountability systems.

LAURA S. HAMILTON (Stanford University (Stanford, CA), Ph.D., 1997, Educational Psychology, specialization in psychometrics) is an associate behavioral scientist, RAND, Santa Monica, CA.

BRIAN M. STECHER (Ph.D., Education, 1982, University of California, Los Angeles) is a Senior Social Scientist at RAND.

STEPHEN P. KLEIN (Purdue University, Ph.D., Industrial Psychology) is a senior research scientist at RAND. His areas of research include design and direct studies in the fields of education, criminal justice, health, and military manpower.