State Large-Scale Assessment Context

In the early 1990's, a small number of states started a trend that culminated in federal legislation some 10 years later mandating that all states set up large-scale achievement testing programs that measure student educational attainment as a way of judging school effectiveness.

Such a system begins with the explicit description of achievement expectations that simultaneously drive education (curriculum and instruction) and test design. A feedback loop is created in which students' test scores are aggregated up to school, district, and state scores, with each entity making diagnoses of how it can modify curriculum and instruction.

HumRRO is neither in the business of large-scale test development and test administration, nor K-12 curriculum and instruction development. Rather, HumRRO is a full-service psychometric and research agency that conducts studies to ensure that the various components of the assessment system are soundly built and solidly linked.