Assessing Mastery of Wish-List Content Standards

Abstract

After characterizing most of today's content standards as wish-list curricular aspirations, the author argues that to assess such standards properly, educators must prioritize them. Only those content standards determined to be of the highest priority and also measurable on a per-standard basis should be tested via large-scale assessments. The remaining standards should serve as targets for teachers’ instruction and should be measured by classroom assessments.