Chapter 4: Threats to Validity in Accountability Structures for Public Education

This chapter is a research summary of the author’s doctoral dissertation completed in May, 2015, which investigates the way Standardized Assessment (SA) is used in state educational accountability structures. This quasi-experimental quantitative study found that SA scores trend towards consistency over time, and that there is additional variance, unaccounted for, in scores generally. These findings suggest that SA data is insufficient for many evaluative purposes used by the state for schools and students.