Developing Assessments of Deeper Learning

The Costs and Benefits of Using Tests that Help Students Learn

Apr 01, 2013

By Linda Darling-Hammond and Frank Adamson

Despite a growing consensus that students must acquire higher-order thinking and performance skills to succeed in today’s world, current US tests, which rely heavily on multiple-choice items, measure primarily low-level knowledge and skills. A recent RAND Corporation study found, for example, that fewer than 2% of mathematics items and only about 20% of English language arts (ELA) items on state tests ask students to analyze, synthesize, compare, critique, investigate, prove, or explain their ideas—the kinds of higher-order skills that students most need to become college- and career-ready.