FAQ: Testing Answers

What is the Foundation's position on assessment?

The Core Knowledge Foundation believes that assessment is an integral part of the instructional cycle.

Properly constructed curriculum based tests should drive instruction.

Well designed standardized tests may also be useful in monitoring the effectiveness of curriculum and general instructional practice. It is important, however, to analyze what is actually being assessed by any given evaluation tool and how this relates to what is taught in the classroom on a daily basis.

With regards to state tests, it is also important to understand that, at the present time, it is not meaningful to compare student performance on different state tests, as different criteria and norms for demonstrating proficiency have been identified by individual states. The Foundation looks forward to future initiatives designed to construct common state assessments that truly reflect the standards and curriculum being used in schools.

We recommend that you read the article by Dr. E. D. Hirsch, Jr., entitled "The Tests We Need and Why We Don't Quite Have Them."

As part of our alignment process, the Foundation closely examines standards and testing objectives. We want to ensure that schools are teaching the test objectives through the Core Knowledge content prior to state testing. You can find completed alignments and some hints for completing new alignments on our website.

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Does the Core Knowledge Foundation offer guidance with regards to assessment?

There are two types of assessment, formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment is the type of periodic progress monitoring that all teachers should create and conduct on a regular basis to monitor individual student progress with regards to whatever is being taught. Good assessment starts with the identification of very specific objectives that delineate what students are expected to learn and how they are expected to demonstrate mastery of that knowledge. The Teacher Handbooks provide assessment suggestions for various grade level topics. Additional guidance in creating assessments is also provided as part of our professional development.

Summative assessments are generally administered at the end of a quarter, semester or year to evaluate overall student retention and mastery of knowledge and skills. 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, call Questar Assessment at 1-800-800-2598.

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There are so many standardized and/or state level tests that children must take. Why does the Core Knowledge Foundation recommend the use of the Questar Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced Tests?

Standardized states rarely evaluate the specific curriculum being used in a classroom. While standardized tests are useful to monitor overall student achievement as compared to a national norm group, particularly when used longitudinally, it is also important to assess the mastery of the curriculum that students have been taught. Core Knowledge schools need some way of measuring how effectively they are teaching the Sequence. The Questar Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced Tests are one way to do this. They are group tests which do not require excessive amounts of time to administer.

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Have the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests been field tested?

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.

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Do the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests require the use of specific textbooks or materials?

No, the tests measure student mastery of the Core Knowledge Sequence content at each grade level and are not tied to specific textbooks or materials. However, common sense dictates that students using textbooks and/or materials that are most closely aligned to the Core Knowledge Sequence will more likely master the Sequence content and be able to demonstrate that knowledge on curriculum based tests. For example the Pearson history and geography series textbooks are based directly on the Sequence, developed by the Foundation in conjunction with Pearson Publishing. Students using these materials will likely experience more complete coverage of the Core Knowledge history and geography topics than students using other non-aligned textbooks. 

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Can the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests be described as high-stakes?

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 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.

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 Is there any correlation between results on the Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests and the results on high-stakes tests?

The Core Knowledge Foundation cannot yet provide such an empirical correlation. Our general experience with regards to the performance of Core Knowledge students on standardized tests is that, since learning is cumulative, increases in student achievement may not initially be reflected on standardized tests administered in the very early elementary grades. However.if students are systematically and effectively taught the Sequence over consecutive grades, superior academic achievement as measured by standardized tests becomes evident around 4th or 5th grade. It therefore seems reasonable to suggest that those students who perform well on the grade level Core Knowledge Curriculum-Referenced tests are indeed mastering the Sequence content and can be expected to perform well on standardized tests in the later elementary grades.

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What kind of score means that a school is doing well?

Data allowing relative comparisons between schools has not been collected. However, teachers can calculate the mean performance/percentage correct for each subtest across grade level classrooms and can then compare individual student and classroom performance. Scores will reflect a number of factors including individual student retention, as well as the degree of Core Knowledge implementation: if a teacher is only teaching 50% of the Core Knowledge Sequence students will not score as well as students in a classroom that is implementing 90% or 100% of the Sequence.

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Are scores reported to the Core Knowledge Foundation?

No. However, the Foundation encourages schools to report scores on a voluntarily basis to us. The Foundation treats all such information as confidential and never discloses any test scores linked to specific schools or districts.

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How can the Core Knowledge Foundation make use of test results?

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.

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Why are there no Core Knowledge tests beyond grade 5?

The Core Knowledge Foundation, as a nonprofit organization, can only undertake those initiatives for which it can secure grant funding. We were able to obtain funding to create tests up to grade 5.

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