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Focusing on validity, it critiques traditional item formats and explores why educators struggle to know what students truly know, especially across question types, time, scoring differences, and score interpretation. It proposes performance-based task reforms for elementary and middle school.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/","Exam",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/new-york-state-k-12-social-studies-toolkit-assessment-white-paper/269029/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/new-york-state-k-12-social-studies-toolkit-assessment-white-paper/269029.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"นรินทร์","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why does the paper emphasize assessment coherence with standards and curriculum directions?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Reform chances diminish when assessments are not aligned with the standards and curricular directions teachers receive. Coherence supports robust, real learning improvements rather than superficial change.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What is the key limitation discussed in social studies testing besides reliability?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The paper argues that validity is the central problem: assessments have not consistently measured what matters, leaving educators without confidence in what results represent.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What makes it difficult to determine what students know in social studies?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Difficulty arises from varied responses to different question types, changes in apparent knowledge over short periods, inconsistent judgments across scorers, and multiple interpretations of scores from classroom or large-scale tests.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},269029,1791103987,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,95,100,104,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":33,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},2336475104957,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c6bd8a5076e1?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1787554080175789136","New York State K-12 Social Studies Toolkit  \nAssessment White Paper  \nS. G. Grant  \nKathy Swan  \nJohn Lee  \nSocial studies and its constituent disciplinary fields (e.g., civics, economics, geography, and history) have faced a rocky road of late. Effectively ignored by the No Child Left Behind legislation, social studies then seemed coopted as a minor part of the Common Core English-Language Arts standards. Over the years, there have been many reasons for the apparent marginalization of social studies—some legitimate, others not—but the outcome was the same: Social studies appeared to be withering on the academic vine.  \nIt is withering no more. Through a range of state and national efforts, social studies is rebounding across the United States. The efforts germane to this paper are the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for State Social Studies Standards, the New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework, and the New York State K-12 Social Studies Toolkit and Professional Development project.  \nNone of these efforts, however, will transform social studies teaching and learning by themselves (Grant, 2003, 2006). Teaching and learning are complex activities and so, while new standards and curriculum can help teachers engage their students, equally important are the assessments that follow. Few observers would argue that assessment alone should drive teaching and learning. But if assessments are not coherent with the standards and curricular directions expressed, then the chance for real and robust reform diminishes (DarlingHammond & Adamson, 2014) .  \nAssessments have improved over time, especially in the domain of reliability. That is, little doubt now exists that results will vary significantly if students are given repeated versions of the same tasks. The problem is on the validity side of testing: We simply have not consistently developed assessments that inspire confidence that they measure anything of importance (Darling-Hammond & Adamson, 2014; Grant, 2007; Grant & Salinas, 2008; Stiggins, 2014; Supovitz, 2009). Traditional forms of assessment (multiple-choice questions, extended-response tasks) have their purposes and yield a high degree of psychometric reliability. But they reinforce the image that subjects like social studies are but a laundry list of people, places, and events. Moreover, multiple-choice questions, in particular, too often seem designed to trick students rather than accurately assess what they know and can do. Some scholars are trying to redesign multiple-choice questions to better probe students’abilities (Au, 2009; VanSledright, 2013). That effort alone, however, is unlikely to win the trust of those for whom testing matters—students, teachers, parents, policymakers, and the public. Thus the question of how we know what students know, especially with a high degree of confidence, remains problematic.  \nAs part of the Memorandum of Agreement between the New York State Education Department and Binghamton University, Commissioner John King asked that a white paper be developed to “help inform the development of future state assessments in social studies.”To honor that request, we offer the following analysis of and proposal for the assessment of social studies in New York State.  \nThe proposal calls for the development of an assessment program that incorporates, but extends beyond the current Regents testing program in social studies. More specifically, we argue for a set of performance-based tasks at the elementary and middle school that would be required, but would give local district educators considerable discretion in how these assessment tasks were constructed, scored, and interpreted.  \nThe Challenge of Knowing What Students Know  \nOdd as it may seem, understanding what children know about history or social studies has proven illusive. Over time, educators and psychometricians have constructed many ways of assessing what children know under the assumption that there is no one best asses","cbCaisstf1LCVHwU","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisstf1LCVHwU","pdf",220391,18,"English","# Assessment White Paper\n## Purpose and Context for Social Studies Assessment\n## Coherence with Standards and Curriculum\n## Reliability vs. Validity in Testing\n## Rethinking Multiple-Choice Assessment\n## The Challenge of Knowing What Students Know\n## Classroom-Based vs. Large-Scale Assessments","[{\"question\":\"Why does the paper emphasize assessment coherence with standards and curriculum directions?\",\"answer\":\"Reform chances diminish when assessments are not aligned with the standards and curricular directions teachers receive. Coherence supports robust, real learning improvements rather than superficial change.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the key limitation discussed in social studies testing besides reliability?\",\"answer\":\"The paper argues that validity is the central problem: assessments have not consistently measured what matters, leaving educators without confidence in what results represent.\"},{\"question\":\"What makes it difficult to determine what students know in social studies?\",\"answer\":\"Difficulty arises from varied responses to different question types, changes in apparent knowledge over short periods, inconsistent judgments across scorers, and multiple interpretations of scores from classroom or large-scale tests.\"}]","New York State K-12 Social Studies Toolkit - Assessment White Paper | PDF",1789442326,45]