Since 1998, Achieve has relied on the advice of national experts in standards and assessment to amplify and expand our criteria and tools for assessing standards and tests, and we continue to refine our benchmarking services as our experience grows.

Criteria for Outstanding Standards

Clear, specific, rigorous and teachable standards should be the foundation of all state education reforms. Achieve compares state standards to benchmark standards from highly regarded states and nations to help states gauge the quality of their standards.

English language arts: American Diploma Project (ADP) English benchmarks, California (1997) and Massachusetts (2001), as well as the early literacy standards of North Carolina (1999), Texas (2001) and New Standards (1999).

Mathematics: ADP mathematics benchmarks, as well as Achieve's end-of-grade-8 expectations, Foundations for Success, and grade-level standards for K–8. In addition, Achieve uses benchmarks from Singapore (2001) and Indiana (2000), as well as from Massachusetts (2000) and Ohio (1997), which offer two different approaches to high school.

Science: Delaware (1995), Indiana K–8 (2000), Massachusetts (2000). Since the state documents are largely based on the National Science Education Standards and the standards contained in American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Project 2061, Benchmarks for Science Literacy, Achieve considers these benchmarks as well.

History/social studies: Alabama (2000), California (1998) and Indiana (2001).

Achieve asks questions such as:

• Are the standards as rigorous as those of highly regarded states and nations? Is there a clear progression of knowledge and skills as students grow older? Do the standards include samples of student work to illustrate the quality and complexity of student expectations?
• Are the standards clearly written and easy to understand? Are they specific enough to provide clear guidance to students, teachers, parents, administrators, and curriculum and assessment developers? Do they focus on measurable content, knowledge and skills?
• Are the standards teachable, or do they sacrifice breadth for depth? Do the standards balance mastery of knowledge with conceptual understanding? Are connections among the disciplines emphasized?

Criteria for Aligned Assessments

• Assessments that measure the state standards are a critical element in successful standards-based reform. Yet alignment is not a yes or no question. It is the degree to which standards and assessments are in agreement and work together to guide and support student learning. Achieve's assessment-to-standards analysis helps policymakers find answers to several key policy questions.
• Does each assessment measure only content and skills reflected in the standards? In other words, can everything on the test be found in the state standards?
• Does each assessment fairly and effectively sample the important knowledge and skills in the standards? In other words, to what extent does each assessment measure the key content and skills for a grade level?
• Overall, is each assessment sufficiently challenging?

To respond to these questions, Achieve has developed a reliable systematic protocol to probe various factors that contribute to alignment.

Content. Does the test measure what the state standards indicate that all students should know and be able to do at a particular grade level? If not, is it because the standards are too vague to make a determination, or is it because test items measure only part of what the standards ask for?

Performance. Are students asked to demonstrate the skills the standards expect? For example, if the standards say that students will analyze the characteristics of various literary forms, does the test ask them to evaluate different literary forms, or does it merely ask students to identify one type of literature?

Level of challenge. Are most test items easy, medium or hard, and is the range of challenge appropriately distributed across all the items? What makes them challenging – the content they are assessing or another factor, such as the language of the question? Overall, is each assessment appropriately rigorous for students who have been taught to the state standards?

Balance and range. Does the test as a whole adequately sample the depth and breadth of the standards and objectives described in the state documents? If not, are the standards that are assessed the most important ones for the grade level? Overall, do the assessments for elementary, middle and high school focus on the most important content that all students should know?

Benefits of Achieve's benchmarking services include benchmarking reports with objective analyses, customized tools and specific recommendations. Costs are calculated on a fee-for-service basis. Contact Achieve for more.