ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to address what we believe are five widely held misconceptions about large-scale high-stakes assessment programs. These include (a) that high-stakes assessments set up students, teachers, and schools for failure; (b) that large-scale assessments are too costly; (c) that state assessments are filled with biased test items; (d) that the performance standards are often set too high; and (e) that policymakers, educators, and members of the general public actually understand the test results they are presented with. What follows is a consideration of each of the misconceptions.
