Assessment Mythbusters for PARCC and Smarter Balanced

As states transition to new college- and career-ready standards and assessments, there is lots of misinformation about what these new assessments are and how they will affect students. In these handouts we collect some of the best arguments we’ve heard for countering the claims, conspiracy theories and worries about the use of tests in general and new assessments aligned to Common Core standards specifically. We provide two different handouts, one focusing on PARCC assessment myths and another for Smarter Balanced assessment myths.

This is a companion piece to What Does a High-Quality Assessment Look Like? In which we summarize findings from assessment experts to help policymakers understand the issues to target when selecting assessments.