Michigan Department of Education director Joseph Martineau is featured in a new collection of essays published by the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, MEANINGFUL MEASUREMENT examines the role of assessments in improving high school education. According to the report, federal policy must support a radically different system of assessments if the United States is to succeed in preparing all students for college and career.

“At all levels of the education system, assessments serve as a way to establish meaningful goals and signal to all stakeholders the progress in reaching them, said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “Unfortunately, there is a general consensus that current assessment policies and practices do not establish the goal of college and career readiness for all students, nor do they support improved teaching and learning.”

Meaningful Measurement contains nine essays with themes that include the need for assessments that measure students’ college and career readiness, the interest in performance assessments, and the role of benchmark assessments.

“Measuring Student Achievement Growth at the High School Level,” by MDE’s  director of the Office of Educational Assessment and Accountability Joseph Martineau, explains the technical underpinnings of growth models, describes the various types of growth models, articulates challenges inherent to measuring growth at the high school level, and explores implications for policymakers interested in moving toward the widespread use of growth models.