Designing and implementing reliable assessment and accountability systems to support student achievement goals
Addressing technical, policy, and practical measurement and accountability challenges
Influencing large-scale assessment and accountability policy to bring about positive educational outcomes
A Look at Fulfilling Hopes for Innovative Assessments and Instructional Utility
It may sound innovative to claim that commercial interim assessments support instruction, but simply saying it doesn’t make it so.
A Framework to Help State Assessment Teams Deal Effectively With Change
Heraclitus of Ephesus said that “The only thing that is constant is change.” This observation certainly applies to K-12 assessment programs, as assessment transitions seem to be happening on a more frequent basis and at a more rapid pace in recent years.
Consider the following information gathered from a recent informal survey of 21 states by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) about assessment transitions in the past few years:
Providing Flexibility to Schools and Districts while meeting ESSA Assessment Requirements
Getting the most out of any investment is common sense, and a sensical goal. In terms of school districts and states, these entities often make substantial investments into interim assessments with the aim of supporting classroom instruction and district decision making.
Taking a Principled Approach to Evaluating Reporting Scales and Performance Standards when Modifications are Made to Assessments
For a variety of reasons—political, psychometric and practical—states are often required to modify their large-scale summative assessments. These changes may be significant, such as developing new assessments after the adoption of revised academic content standards, or minor, such as adding a couple items to an existing test blueprint.
Shifting From an Accountability to an Instructional Mindset for Teacher Evaluation
I was recently invited by Future Focused Education to share my thoughts on teacher evaluation for their blog. I contributed two posts about the insurmountable challenges of state-mandated teacher evaluation and the promise of coherent locally-based support and evaluation systems.
The Road from Defining and Measuring Alignment to Effectively Using it in the Design of Assessments and Assessment Systems
Alignment turns 25 this year. Happy Birthday, Alignment! Alignment burst onto the K-12 assessment landscape with the Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA) – the 1994 reauthorization of ESEA. Among other Title 1 requirements, IASA required states to develop “assessments aligned to challenging content and performance standards.”
The Lack of Consistency in Accountability Results Across the Country Provokes This Fundamental Question
States will soon publish (or have already published) the first results of their federally-mandated accountability systems.
An Approach to Promote Coherence by Connecting Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction to Student Learning
State and district leaders are increasingly interested in implementing balanced systems of assessment, in large part to improve the instructional utility of assessment scores.
Colloquial Language is More Familiar, But Can be More Easily Misinterpreted When Reporting Test Results
With the proliferation of large-scale state summative assessments and published results, one could say that testing has gone mainstream.
The Problems with Applying Traditional Performance Ratings to Alternative Schools
Alternative high schools serve a vital role in improving outcomes for students, particularly for those students who are most at risk.
While there isn’t a uniform definition for “alternative,” the term typically describes a school that primarily serves students who have not been successful in a traditional environment. Alternative high schools often receive students with cumulative academic deficits and take on the vital work of helping students prepare for opportunities after high school.
How Effective are Alternative High Schools?
Center associates are supporting more than a dozen states responding to the Every Student Succeeds Act with inventive and technically defensible accountability designs.
The Center is leading the way in helping states and districts design and implement innovative assessment systems. The Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE) project in New Hampshire is a notable example of the Center’s work in this area.
Assessment comparability continues to be a challenging topic. The Center is working with states and other partners to address comparability issues with consortium as well as with other innovative assessment systems.
Are You Interested in Joining the Center Team?
The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment) is searching for up to two exceptionally-qualified professionals to join our team. The Center hires deeply knowledgeable and accomplished professionals with demonstrated expertise in the design, implementation, and evaluation of assessment and accountability systems. Read More…
The Center engages in deep partnerships with state and district education leaders to increase student learning through more meaningful educational assessment and accountability practices.
A Look at Fulfilling Hopes for Innovative Assessments and Instructional Utility
It may sound innovative to claim that commercial interim assessments support instruction, but simply saying it doesn’t make it so.
A Framework to Help State Assessment Teams Deal Effectively With Change
Heraclitus of Ephesus said that “The only thing that is constant is change.” This observation certainly applies to K-12 assessment programs, as assessment transitions seem to be happening on a more frequent basis and at a more rapid pace in recent years.
Consider the following information gathered from a recent informal survey of 21 states by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) about assessment transitions in the past few years:
Providing Flexibility to Schools and Districts while meeting ESSA Assessment Requirements
Getting the most out of any investment is common sense, and a sensical goal. In terms of school districts and states, these entities often make substantial investments into interim assessments with the aim of supporting classroom instruction and district decision making.
