Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher compliance with state mandated assessment protocols and teacher accuracy in assessing student motor skill performance.
Method:
Middle school teachers (N = 116) submitted eighth grade student motor skill performance data from 318 physical education classes to a trained monitoring committee to evaluate compliance and data accuracy.
Results:
Eighty-four percent of the data sets met the requirements for acceptance and compliance by the monitoring committee. Accurate assessment of students proved more difficult for teachers when discriminating four performance levels within a rubric (M = 67.17%, SD = 19.79) than simply discerning between competent and incompetent motor skill performance (M = 93.92%, SD = 7.42). Teachers who attended data collection training sessions and curriculum inservice training submitted more compliant and accurate student performance data.
Discussion:
Teacher training is instrumental in the successful use of testing protocols and for discriminating levels within student skill competency. Training should be a part of any district or state mandated assessment program.