Educational Assessment: Expanded Expectations and Challenges

Current national efforts to expand the role of educational assessment and radically change the nature of assessments are discussed. Rationales for expectations that a new national examination system would serve as a lever of educational reform are analyzed. Challenges posed for educational measurement by the proposed heavy reliance on complex, performance-based assessment are examined in terms of needed validation research. Particular attention is given to existing generalizability evidence and the implications of a high degree of task specificity for the design of an assessment system.