Sadly, one of the giants in the field of educational measurement has recently passed away – Dr. Ron Hambleton. The fact that Ron was one of the most prodigious and acclaimed scholars in our field is undisputed. A list of his works is astonishing in its breadth and influence, and his accolades are unmatched. Despite this, he wasn’t a distant ‘ivory tower’ professor. Communicating in ways that reached broad audiences was one of his passions – one that came through in his works, including books that an entire generation of measurement students studied. I was one of those students.

After two productive but virtual summers, we are looking forward to working side-by-side with our new group of summer interns to support the future of educational assessment and accountability through our 2022 summer internship program. 

A large part of the work my colleagues and I do at the Center is focused on helping our clients solve hard problems. This year I’ve encountered one of the thorniest problems I’ve seen in my career. Stated simply, what should states do about federally required school accountability in 2022? When deliberating about a new challenge, we sometimes quip, “if there was an easy answer, we probably wouldn’t be involved.” Although there are seldom easy or perfect solutions to hard problems, we always work to help states take a principled approach to finding the best solution for their situation. 

It’s rare to find an issue that nearly everyone agrees with, but I think that the desire to reduce testing time is one of them. If we surveyed students and teachers to ask if they want to cut back on the time spent taking standardized tests, I confidently predict this proposition would receive near-universal support. It’s not hard to understand why. Proponents of reducing testing time are quick to point out that time devoted to testing decreases the available time for instruction.  

In a previous post I discussed the challenges of rebuilding accountability systems developed for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2021-2022. Prominent among these challenges is missing data due to multiple years of pandemic-related disruptions. What are the best alternatives to solve this problem? In this post I’ll suggest a tool, the performance profile, that may help address the issue of partially missing data.   

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to subside in the United States, it may be reasonable to expect some education activities to resume with relatively little delay or difficulty. But the impact to other aspects of the education system is likely more extensive, requiring a period of rebuilding before complete resumption. Such is the case with rebuilding school accountability systems statewide.  

Why School Accountability Activities Will Resume Incrementally Rather Than Immediately  

A year ago the pandemic changed everything, including the way we think about educational assessment. Although COVID-19 was well on its way to becoming a global pandemic in early 2020, it wasn’t until the second week of March that I, like many Americans, realized the full scale of the impact.  Then, the pandemic suddenly became one of those rare things that I never thought about until it was the only thing I thought about.   

Even as discussions continue about the merits of state testing in 2021, the reality is that many states will soon begin spring administration. Indeed, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has not waived or relaxed the assessment requirements specified in the Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA). While some states have applied for testing waivers in 2021, at the time of writing, no waivers have been granted. Questions about whether or how to test must soon be overshadowed by questions like “How should we communicate the results?”

To some extent, trying to address the many challenges that the pandemic presents for K-12 education has been like steering a ship in a storm without the benefit of the ability to predict the storm’s duration or path with any confidence.

The Reidy Interactive Lecture Series (RILS) is one of the highlights for Center associates and our colleagues each year. It’s always a treat to convene in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; a great setting to appreciate the beauty of autumn in New England. What has made RILS special each fall since 1999, however, is the opportunity for a diverse group of participants to discuss timely and important topics in assessment and accountability.