Linda Darling-Hammond

Linda Darling-Hammond, a researcher and author in the area of assessment and equity, discusses how assessment can enhance equity when changes are made in the ways that assessments are used. Excerpted from an interview with Linda Darling-Hammond (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1996).

"Changes in forms of assessment are unlikely to enhance equity, unless we change the ways in which assessments are used as well, from sorting mechanisms to diagnostic support, from external monitors of performance to locally generated tools for inquiring into teaching and learning, and from purveyors of sanctions for those who already underserved to levers for equalizing resources and enhancing learning opportunity, authentic assessment can, however, enhance equity, in part by informing teachers more fully about how their students think and learn, as well as what they know. As teachers understand student learning more fully, they are more able to adapt their teaching to student needs and to create opportunities for student success."

This Critical Issue summary was researched and written by Deborah Winking, senior consultant at Panasonic Foundation in Pleasanton, California, and formerly an evaluation associate at North Central Regional Educational Laboratory in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Date posted: 1997