The Validity of Gains in Scores on the Kentucky Intructional Results Information System (KIRIS) (Rand Corporation//Rand Monograph Report)

Daniel M. Koretz

In recent years, in an effort to avoid the degradation of instruction and inflation of test scores that often occurred when educators were held accountable for scores on multiple-choice tests, policymakers have experimented with accountability systems based on performance assessments. The Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS), which rewarded or sanctioned schools largely on the basis of changes in scores on a complex, partially performance-based assessment, was an archetype of this wave of reform. It is not a given, however, that performance assessment can avoid the inflation of scores that arises when teachers and students focus too narrowly on the content of the assessment used for accountability rather than focusing on the broad domains of achievement the assessment is intended to measure.^ Accordingly, this study evaluated the extent to which the large...

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