MEASURING PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
Performance in public education is viewed as an indicator of school or academic success. The breadth and complexity of education has led to the difficult development of measures of this performance. The raising of achievement levels has become a public issue and new policy strategies are again measured to indicate performance levels and success (California Postsecondary Education commission [CPEC], 1996; Duffield, Allan, Turner, & Morris, 2000). The measurement of this performance in public education has led to research resulting in literature regarding several main questions, findings, and unanswered questions, which will be discussed in the following presentation.
Main Questions Addressed in the Literature
Elliott, Erickson, Thurlow, and Shriner (2000) report that the accountability for the performance of students today is a key issue in educational reform at all levels. Measurement of performance of public education has included an increase in assessment activity during the last ten years. State-level assessments are used as measurements of performance and whether this testing affects outcomes or makes a difference in performance evaluation, remains a question in the literature.
Included in the exploration of whether testing makes a difference are topics such as whether practice tests and preparation for standardized tests, improve test performance, and whether certain types of tests make a difference in measurement.
As the differences in testing are explored, the question turns more toward whether or not these tests accurately measure performance of public education. Morgan and Wyatt-Smith (2000) report that while literacy has become a recent pervasive focus, whether the actual performance of public education is being measured by assessment techniques, has remained a more silent issue. Additionally research discusses the use of a composite index of school performa...