ABSTRACT
In response to state and federal mandates, such as the No Child Left Behind legislation (U.S. Department of Education, 2001), state accountability programs at the elementary and secondary levels, are directly equating aggregated child outcomes with quality. Few measures of classroom quality exist at the elementary and secondary levels. The measures that do exist are not supported by sufficient validity evidence to justify their use for high stakes decision making. Public policy makers have turned to aggregated test scores and high-stakes testing programs as the definitive measures of the quality of elementary and secondary schools, and classrooms.
