Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE)

In this paper, Bae and Darling-Hammond propose three types of performance indicators for use in California's redesigned accountability system to measure and support career and college readiness. The report includes specific guidance for the use of performance assessment to measure both college...

This report is designed to offer practitioners models, tools, and examples from the Linked Learning Pathways Initiative for developing a performance assessment system. The California Linked Learning District Initiative is in its fifth year. The initiative has provided significant support to nine...

This brief identifies three strategic practices to be taken collectively by schools, districts, and communities to mobilize around preparing students for college and career success:

• Collectively articulating and aligning a set of student outcomes that prioritize 21st century skills
...

This brief outlines how the California's Linked Learning District Initiative is supporting 10 school districts across California. Students enrolled in a Linked Learning pathway enter into a four-year program of study that integrates academic content with technical and 21st century skills within...

In this paper, Linda Darling-Hammond and other leading scholars in assessment describe a set of criteria for high-quality student assessments. These criteria can be used by assessment developers, policymakers, and educators.

The five criteria include: 

1. Assessment of Higher-Order...

This paper by Linda Darling-Hammond outlines how states can achieve the goal of making high-quality assessments both affordable and feasible to implement while strengthening teaching and learning at the same time. States that seek such a system can achieve their goals by:

• Understanding...

In this paper, Suzanne Lane advocates for the use of performance assessments, which have been an integral part of educational systems in numerous countries. Research has shown that the format of the assessment affects the type of thinking and reasoning skills that are used by students, with...

This report by Ace Parsi and Linda Darling-Hammond is intended to familiarize state boards of education with performance assessments and help policymakers address some of the thorniest issues around these assessments: purpose, sustainability, reliability, accountability, policy...

This paper by Raymond L. Pecheone and Stuart Kahl describes efforts by states to use performance assessment in large-scale state accountability systems and highlights promising practices that can a basis for broadening how the nation approaches assessement and accountability. Lessons from...

This paper is one of eight written through a Stanford University project aimed at summarizing research and lessons learned regarding the development, implementation, consequences, and costs of performance assessments. 

As the paper shows, the bulk of the costs for any assessment system...

As policymakers consider the costs of new assessment systems, it is important to understand the costs of existing testing systems that have evolved at the local as well as state levels, currently pointed at improving performance on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) summative tests. To examine these...

This paper, discusses limitations with the standardized achievement tests currently used for ELLs and share information on how performance assessments can be efficiently used to lead to better understanding of these students’ content knowledge and to improve their academic performance.  

This policy brief describes how four student-centered high schools support student success. In addition, it recommends policy strategies that could sustain schools like these on a much broader scale, so that they become the norm rather than the exception.  The four high schools featured in this...

This report focuses on schools using student-centered practices through either the Linked Learning initiative or Envision Education model. Linked Learning, a state-wide initiative, integrates rigorous academics with career-based learning and real-world workplace experiences.  The main features...

Engaging students in meaningful applications of their knowledge is a key aspect of both addressing the standards and providing greater access. Not only do the standards emphasize the importance of meaningful engagement in real-world tasks, but evidence shows that engagement is strongly related...