Shulman’s Student Accountability as Narrative

Shulman offers seven pillars of assessment for accountability (telling the story of each student). Shulman, L. S. (2007). “Counting and Recounting: Assessment and the Quest for Accountability” Change

1 Become explicit about the story you need to tell and the rationale for choosing it.

2. Do not think that there is a “bottom line.” What does any instrument measure and not measure? Assessment is only meaningful in the larger context.

3. Design multiple measures (array of instruments) to avoid narrowness of scope

4. Work on combining multiple measures. Develop rules for deciding how to display, organize, and aggregate the indicators.

5. Remember that high stakes corrupt.

6. Embed assessment into ongoing instruction. Do low stakes/high yield forms of assessment.

7. Become an active site and collaborative site for research on new forms of assessment, technologies to support such work and better strategies for integration of such approaches with instruction.

He feels that “we need a strategy to combine the local with the national and to meld low-stakes assessment with an accountability approach that will be minimally corrupting.”

What is your story of your students’ learning? Is it a one dimensional view of state test scores? Is it a one dimensional view of quizzes and tests? Is it a multidimensional view that includes state tests, your tests, formative assessments and students’ goals? How big of a story can you tell at present about any student? How can you use technology to tell a fuller richer story about each learner?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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