Three Teachers, One Test Question: Will Their Responses Differ?

A common argument in favor of project-based and portfolio assessments is that even high-quality standardized tests do not evaluate students’ work as do teachers who work with the students.

To get a feel for how much teacher grades might differ, Assistant Editor Sarah D. Sparks asked teachers from district, charter, and independent middle schools to share their perspectives on real student responses to open-ended questions from the 8th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress. Cossondra George, a middle school teacher of math, language arts, history/social studies, and special education at Newberry Middle and High School in Newberry, Michigan; Jonathan Gold, a middle school history teacher and academic team leader at the Moses Brown School, an independent school in Providence, R.I.; and Ariel Sacks, a teacher of grades 7-9 English/language arts in the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, N.Y., took up the challenge.