Assessment in the service of learning: challenges and opportunities or Plus ça Change, Plus c’est la même Chose

Abstract

This paper begins with a brief overview of literature indicating that, although there have been significant advances in the field's capacity to conduct both formative and summative assessments over the past decades, those advances have not been matched by comparable impact. The bulk of the paper is devoted to a series of examples from the Mathematics Assessment Project that illustrate issues of methods, and the unrealized potential for advances.

Assessment in mathematics education: responding to issues regarding methodology, policy, and equity

“…Assessment studies can provide useful information to improve mathematics education (Cai et al 2016); thus assessment is a primary source for policy-making. Burkhardt and Schoenfeld (2018) argue that significant advances have been made within the field of mathematics education in conducting both formative and summative assessments but that these advances have not made a comparable impact on learning. In their review of previous research that has aimed to improve assessment practices and the use of assessment data to improve teaching and learning at the classroom level, the authors conclude that policy-makers typically underestimate the challenges involved in assessment design and development.…”

“…Consequently, the question of what might be done to improve stakeholders' abilities to interpret assessment data remains a key question. Burkhardt and Schoenfeld (2018) propose that the research community within mathematics education should engage with decision-makers. The authors indicate that the real challenge, however, is to find better ways to mitigate trust in simple statistics gleaned from what they have called high-stakes low-quality tests as well as increasing interest in high-quality assessments that can contribute to improved mathematics education.…”

“…Equity in mathematics education concerns equal opportunities to learn important mathematical content for all students (see for instance Burkhardt and Schoenfeld 2018). Similarly, equity within mathematics assessment means that all students should have the same opportunities to demonstrate their mathematical competence.…”

“…Educational systems should educate citizens who can contribute to democracy and add to the technical and financial development of society; such citizens must also possess the mathematical competence necessary for their professional and everyday lives. To achieve these goals, we need to develop assessments that can assess all aspects of mathematical competence, not only certain aspects that are easier to assess (Hoogland and Tout 2018;Burkhardt and Schoenfeld 2018). Research in the field should pay more attention to the theoretical foundations of what is assessed and the development of the test instruments (Neubrand 2018;Martinovic and Manizade 2018;Yang;Hansen and Strietholt 2018;Ubuz and Aydin 2018;Pankow et al 2018).…”

“…Ideally, the assessments used for policymaking should provide important information necessary to shape educational policies that can improve mathematics education (Lin et al 2018). In addition, policy-makers must look past surface output (e.g., average scores) to identify the crucial messages (Auld and Morris 2016;Burkhardt and Schoenfeld 2018).…”