We have demonstrated a way in which large-scale assessments can be more carefully linked to what students are learning.
The key here is the use of progress
variables to provide a common conceptual framework across curricula. Variables
developed and used in the ways we have described here can mediate
between the level of detail that is present in the content of specific curricula
and the necessarily more vague contents of standards documents. This idea of a
“crosswalk between standards and assessments” has also been suggested by Eva
Baker of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing
[Land 1997, p. 6]. These variables also create a “conceptual basis” for relating a curriculum to standards documents, to other curricula, and to assessments that
are not specifically related to that curriculum.