Performance Assessments: Political Rhetoric and Measurement Reality

Abstract

y most yardsticks-international comparative studies of achievement, national assessment of educational progress, and some state testing programs-the United States has lost its academic competitiveness. The stakes are high. According to President Bush: Today, education determines not just which students will succeed, but also which nations will thrive in a world united in pursuit of freedom in enterprise (1991, p. 1). He went on to argue that: