Use Mathematics Assessments to Promote Equity

In the October 1993 working draft of the Assessment Standards for School Mathematics, NCTM discusses equity as a standard against which every assessment activity must be measured. In Measuring What Counts: A Conceptual Guide for Mathematics Assessment (1993), the National Research Council identifies equity as one of three guiding principles for effective assessment that supports standards-based mathematics education.

Both documents argue that mathematics assessments should be used in the following ways to promote equity:

• Incorporate flexibility by providing all students with varied and appropriate ways to demonstrate mathematical power - i.e., what they know and can do with important mathematics.

• Accommodate differences among students by considering the roles that experience and background play in students' thinking and communicating about mathematics.

• Use assessment results to gain insight into each student's mathematical thinking - to identify what students have and have not learned in order to develop increased opportunities to learn mathematics.

• Involve teachers and other professionals, parents, and community members from diverse backgrounds in the design and public reporting of assessments.

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