Measuring Student Achievement Through Rigor, Not Test Scores

By Douglas Reeves

Teacher accountability systems often use test scores to measure the effectiveness of instruction. When these systems simply look at scores achieved by students in the fall semester versus those achieved in the spring, an incentive exists to make students score low on the first test. If the benchmark is low, then the chances of showing progress increase. However, this approach does a disservice to students. Teachers and administrators may also purposefully make fall tests more difficult than spring tests, which artificially increases scores but demonstrates no real gains in learning.

Introduction

Instead of using test scores, levels of rigor can be used to show teacher effectiveness. With this system, actual grades may change very little, but student performance may greatly improve. For example, in the beginning of the school year, students might be required to write essays using a single source for support. At the end of the year, they might be asked to produce full research papers bringing together many sources, which would require more sophisticated thinking, synthesis of ideas, and advanced information-gathering techniques. The course work is more rigorous, and students are learning at a higher level than before, even if their actual letter grade remains the same.

Student Achievement