Abstract
Education plays an enormous and vital role in society as well as the United States’ economy, thus warranting laws mandating schools to implement accountability measures in response to increasing concerns about American education. Districts and schools nationwide are pressured to produce academically proficient students who are well-prepared to work, live, and contribute effectively upon graduation. Consequently, many districts and schools across the nation are currently administering periodic benchmark assessments to complement the end-of-year state testing and increase student learning. Up to the present, limited study has been conducted to investigate the relationship between student scores on the final benchmark assessments and student scores on the California Standards Tests (CST) in Title I Program Improvement elementary schools. Furthermore, no study exists on the influence of benchmark assessments on teaching practices of teachers and instructional leadership practices of principals in these low achieving elementary schools. This study examined the relationship between benchmark assessments and the end-of-year state testing in two PI Title I schools in one school district in northern California (NCSD). More specifically, this study investigated whether there is a significant difference between student scores on the final benchmark assessments and student scores on the annual state tests. Many conclusions can be drawn about benchmark assessments based on both the quantitative and qualitative research methods used in this study. First, according to the comparison of CAB and CST scores, evidence shows on the ELA portion that, although there were no significant difference between students’ CAB scores and CST scores, students tended to get the same result; therefore, the CAB has predictive validity with respect to the CST. Next, unlike the ELA portion, student scores on the math CAB and CST showed significant difference in six of ten subgroups (All Students, African American, Asian, Non-EL, Second Grade, and Third Grade Students). In other words, students were more likely to score higher on the CST than the CAB; possibly indicating questions on the math CAB might be more difficult than questions on the math CST or that teachers were stronger in teaching mathematics. Teacher and principal surveys also revealed benchmark assessments play an important role in the teaching practices of teachers and instructional leadership practices of principals. Both groups surveyed agreed with the many benefits of benchmark assessments, including its impact on small group instruction, time working with specific groups of students, and differentiated instruction. Moreover, open-ended survey questions and teacher interviews yielded definite conclusions about benchmark assessments; they provide essential data that transforms instruction by (1) identifying students’ strengths and weaknesses and help in (2) identifying teacher challenges with teaching particular standards.