Core Knowledge Home > About > Frequently Asked Questions: Testing
Testing
If you have further questions after reading this list, please email Gerald Terrell, Vice President, Leadership/K-8.
- What is the Foundation's position on standardized testing?
- What assessments do you have available?
- Why does Core Knowledge have a testing program?
- What kind of test is sponsored by Core Knowledge?
- Have the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests been field tested?
- Do the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests require the use of specific textbooks?
- Can the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests be described as high-stakes?
- Is there any correlation between results on the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests and the results on high-stakes tests?
- What kind of score means that our school is doing well?
- Are scores reported to the Core Knowledge Foundation?
- Are CSR schools that use Core Knowledge required to administer the test?
- How can the Core Knowledge Foundation make use of test results?
- Why is there no Core Knowledge testing program beyond grade 5?
- The Foundation believes that tests, when well designed and implemented in conjunction with a sensible curriculum, are a valuable part of any education program.
- We recommend that you read an article by Dr. E. D. Hirsch, Jr., entitled "The Tests We Need and Why We Don't Quite Have Them." Click here to read the article online.
- We closely examine a school's standards and testing objectives as part of our alignment process. We want to ensure that a school is teaching the test objectives through the Core Knowledge content prior to state testing. You can find some hints for completing these alignments on our website; please click here.
- Finally, Core Knowledge helps children increase their working vocabulary so that their general knowledge is improved and, therefore, makes them more prepared for any task (including taking a standardized test).
- At this time, the Core Knowledge Foundation does not specify which assessments should be used. The form of assessment you use is based upon your instructional methods. As you can see from the lesson plans on our website, teachers from across the country use a variety of instructional methods in their classrooms. The Core Knowledge Foundation asks that the instructional methods chosen be sound and meaningful.
- In addition, we work with schools and guide them in teaching the background needed by students, using the Core Knowledge Sequence as a guide. For example, if you plan to teach a unit on Ancient Rome in Grade 3, you might look back into the Grade 2 portion of the Sequence to give your students a brief “refresher” on Ancient Greece. The last page (the "at a glance" section) of the Sequence is most useful for this reason.
- Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced Tests, published by Questar Assessment, are available for grades 1 through 5. These comprehensive, end-of-year exams reflect the specific subject matter outlined in the Core Knowledge Sequence, and offer teachers a way to assess how well their students are learning and retaining the material they teach. Each grade-level test has four sections, covering mathematics, language arts, history and geography, and science. Scoring is provided by Questar Assessment.
- For more information about Questar's Core Knowledge curriculum-referenced tests, click here, or call Questar Assessment at 1-800-800-2598.
- Educators everywhere hear the call for accountability. The Core Knowledge Foundation accepts the need for accountability — in fact, Core Knowledge's roots are in the accountability movement — and believes that Core Knowledge schools need some way of measuring how effectively they are teaching the Sequence.
- The Core Knowledge tests — published and scored by Questar Assessment (previously TASA) — are curriculum-referenced tests, designed to measure how well an individual student has mastered what has been taught in the Core Knowledge Sequence. In this respect, Core Knowledge tests differ from norm-referenced tests of academic skills or of general knowledge, in which one student's performance is measured against the performance of other students across the country.
- Yes. A large number of questions were field-tested at a variety of Core Knowledge schools. Those questions that field-testing revealed to be well-written, and which a reasonable number of students could correctly answer, are now being used in the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests.
- No. However, we believe that using the Pearson series textbooks in history and geography (which are based directly on the Sequence) will make it much easier for teachers to present the history and geography material that is tested by the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests.
- No. The purpose is to measure whether the Core Knowledge program itself is effective. The test can best be described as a diagnostic test for the administering school and for the Core Knowledge Foundation, which stands ready to assist the school with any difficulties that the test results uncover. No school will ever be criticized or embarrassed by the Foundation because of its test results.
- The Core Knowledge Foundation cannot yet prove such a correlation. However, if students are systematically and effectively taught the Sequence, their norm-referenced scores should rise over time, simply because of the academic skills — in reading, writing, reckoning, and critical reasoning — that a content-rich curriculum such as Core Knowledge fosters.
- We don't yet have enough data to say. However, the first time a school administers the test, it is establishing a baseline against which future test results can be measured. Scores will generally reflect the degree of implementation that a school has attained: if it is only teaching 50% of the Core Knowledge Sequence, a school will not score as well as a school that is implementing 90% or 100% of the Sequence.
- Not unless a school elects to report scores. However, the Foundation encourages schools to report scores so that it can have a basis for offering help. The Foundation never uses scores to compare one school or one teacher to another.
- Yes. As of 2002, any school that received a CSR grant in 2001 or later is required to give the test as part of the assessment process mandated by the U.S. Government as a condition for receiving a CSR grant. It is expected that part of the grant money will be used for this purpose. Administering the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced test is one way that a CSR school can document compliance with this federal requirement.
- Like Core Knowledge schools, the Foundation needs to keep assessing how well our program is working. Test scores help us to understand where in the Sequence we need to create additional materials that schools can use to teach certain topics more effectively, or where our consultants can suggest changes in pacing and emphasis.
- As has been emphasized previously, however, the Foundation never uses test results to embarrass or penalize a Core Knowledge school. Making Core Knowledge an effective program means that we all must work together, learning from our successes and our shortcomings.
- The Core Knowledge Foundation, as a nonprofit organization, can only undertake those initiatives for which it can secure grant funding. Up to this time, we have only been able to obtain grants to create a testing program up to grade 5. However, the Foundation encourages Core Knowledge middle schools to create their own achievement tests, either individually or collaboratively. It is possible that the Foundation could obtain grant funding to support middle school initiatives of this kind.
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Last updated: Fri, May 23 2008
