New Standards Project

In this regard, The New Standards Project (NSP), founded in 1990, has been most comprehensive. By 1995, The New Standards Project had grown into a partnership of over twenty states and urban school districts (Spalding, 1995). In total, this amounted to nearly half of all United States school children (Spalding, 1995). Spearheaded by Lauren Resnick of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh and Marc Tucker of the National Center on Education and the Economy, the New Standards Project explored alternative ways to assess student learning: portfolios, performance tasks, and projects (Spalding, 1995). The project's goal was to develop a performance-based assessment system linked to a set of high national standards. Accordingly, the New Standards Project sought to enhance curriculum, instruction, and student learning as teachers and students developed a shared understanding of the standards, how they are embodied in student work, and how the quality of that work should be judged (Spalding, 1995).