Assessments

Carnegie, ETS Partner for Assessment Suite

• By David Nagel
• 04/18/23

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and assessment provider ETS are partnering to develop a suite of tools designed to "radically transform education assessment across the United States."

According to the groups: "In collaboration with practitioners and policymakers nationwide, the partnership aims to create a robust, scalable suite of assessment and analytic tools that captures the full range of skills required for American students to succeed in K–12, post-secondary education, and beyond."

Carnegie and ETS said they will design and pilot a new assessment suite that will "measure the essential affective, behavioral and cognitive skills necessary for success in school and the 21st-century economy. The offering will be designed to provide actionable evidence of progress to students, parents, educators and states, and will leverage advances in assessment technology to capture and communicate student skill development, whether it occurs inside or outside the classroom."

"Current assessments fail to capture what we know matters most, and do not provide key stakeholders — students, parents and educators — with the insights they need to accelerate learning," Carnegie Foundation President Timothy F.C. Knowles said in a prepared statement. "How we demonstrate progress must become competency-based, and families and educators should be supported by assessments that capture learning whether it occurs in the classroom, after school, on a farm, in the workplace, or in an internship."

"It is time for a seismic shift in education that puts the focus on skills. And not just cognitive skills accounted for in curriculum written for 20th-century skills and work, but the rich tapestry of skills that enable individuals to thrive in the 21st century," said Amit Sevak, President & CEO of ETS. "This is a fundamental paradigm shift from time-based to skill-based units of learning. Smarter assessments are the key to unlock the future."

The new suite is being designed in concert with students, parents, educators, employers, civil rights organizations, and education leaders, according to ETS and Carnegie.