The Downside of Peformance Standards
While not strictly technology-oriented, there is an informative research article on the use and potential misuse of performance standards at epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v11n31/. As stated in the abstract,
“It is argued that the insistence on reporting in terms of performance standards in situations where they are not essential has been more harmful than helpful.”
In particular, the No Child Left Behind act bases their Adequate Yearly Progress sanctions on performance standards. The problem is that each state defines this on their own, so there is no consistency between state measures. The authors point out that only 7% of 8th grade Arizona students met their math standard, while 74.6% of North Carolina students did. However, when measured on the national NAEP math test, 21% of Arizona students met standard, and only 30% of North Carolina students did.