Carla Evans is a Senior Associate at the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment). She is actively engaged with projects that attempt to bridge the gap between classroom assessment and large-scale assessment. Carla supports states in designing and implementing innovative assessment and accountability reforms, especially those that rely on performance assessments. She is also working in multiple states to support the design and implementation of balanced assessment systems with a particular focus on scaling and sustaining assessment literacy initiatives with K-12 teachers and school/district leaders.
Carla’s research focuses on the impacts and implementation of assessment and accountability policies on teaching and learning. Carla is interested in policy research related to innovative assessment and accountability systems, culturally responsive assessment, competency-based education, performance-based assessments, and assessment literacy. She is also an advisor to CCSSO's student-centered learning collaborative.
Carla has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and regularly presents her research at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), National Council for Measurement in Education (NCME), and the National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA). Carla is also a frequent blogger on the Center's website (www.nciea.org/blog) and has created a set of open-source Classroom Assessment Literacy modules (www.nciea.org/classroom-assessment-learning-modules).
Carla received a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire with a concentration in Assessment, Evaluation, and Policy. She was awarded numerous honors, including AERA Division H’s Outstanding Dissertation Award, UNH Dissertation Year Fellowship, UNH Graduate Research Assistantships, and UNH Education Department Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award. Carla was recently awarded AERA Classroom Assessment SIGs Emerging Scholar in Classroom Assessment Award. Carla began her career as an elementary classroom teacher for almost a decade.
Recent and Relevant Publications
Evans, C. M. (2023). Applying a Contrasting Groups Standard Setting Methodology to a Large-Scale Performance Assessment Program Used for Accountability. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 28(1).
Wellberg, S. & Evans, C. M. (2022). Assumptions Underlying Performance Assessment Reforms Intended to Improve Instructional Practices: A Research-Based Framework. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 27(23).
Evans, C. M., Thompson, J., & Landl, E. (2020). Making sense of K-12 competency-based education: A systematic literature review of implementation and outcomes research from 2000 to 2019. Journal of Competency-Based Education, 5(4).
Evans, C. M., Graham, S., & Lefebvre, M. (2019). Exploring K-12 competency-based education implementation in the Northeast states. NASSP Bulletin.
Evans, C.M.(2019). Effects of New Hampshire’s innovative assessment and accountability system on student achievement outcomes after 3 years. Educational Policy Analysis Archives
Evans, C.M., & Lyons, S. (2017). Comparability in balanced assessment systems for state accountability. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice.
Blog Posts Authored by Carla Evans

What Happens to Performance Assessment If We Use It for Accountability?
Those who promote using performance assessment for accountability may want to stop and consider exactly what they want to argue for.
Read More
Supporting the Implementation of Formative Assessment
Formative assessment implementation can be both impeded and facilitated, and we take a look at the factors that play into each outcome.
Read More
Classroom Assessment Learning Modules 2.0
We’re offering 23 professional classroom assessment learning modules, an expansion of 7 modules offered at the beginning of the pandemic.
Read More
Can a State Test Inform Instruction?
Using a state test to inform instruction is possible, but has limitations that educators and other stakeholders need to understand.
Read More
2022 Summer Internships: Improving Educational Assessment and Accountability
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…
Read More
Supporting the Improvement of Educators’ Assessment Literacy
Developing Needs-Based Sociocultural Approaches to Professional Development and Assessment Literacy This post is a summary of the main ideas from a symposium focused on educators’ assessment literac…
Read More
Culturally Sensitive, Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Assessment
Are There Limits to Making Large-Scale Standardized Testing Culturally Responsive? “Assessment practices do far more than provide information; they shape people’s understanding about what is impor…
Read More
Why Have Many (All?) Approaches to Improve K-12 Educator Assessment Literacy Failed to Produce Significant Changes in Teacher Practices at Scale?
Making Teachers Active Agents in Improving Assessment Literacy Most of us would agree that if the problem of improving K-12 educator assessment literacy has not been solved, it is not because of a lac…
Read More
A Culturally Responsive Classroom Assessment Framework
The Intersections of Equity, Pedagogy, and Sociocultural Assessment Equity is a value undergirding public educational systems.
Read More
Following their Lead: Conversations About Innovative Assessment
Discussions with State Leaders Approved to Implement Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority Pilots Five states have been approved to implement innovative assessment pilots as part of the I…
Read More
Enhancing the Impact of Performance Assessments on Instruction
A Research-Based Framework Monitoring the Use of Performance Assessments to Promote Positive Instructional Change This is the fourth post by one of our 2021 summer interns based on their pro…
Read More
What Leads to Positive Changes in Student Learning?
The Relationships Between Instructional Practices and the Instructional Core Regarding Student Learning This is the third post by one of our 2021 summer interns based on their project and th…
Read More
2021 Summer Internships: The Future Is Now
Center Staff and Interns Look Toward the Future of Educational Assessment and Accountability As it appears the country is finally turning the corner on the pandemic, we are excited at the prospect of …
Read More
Implementing an Innovative State Assessment System While We’re Still Building It
Houston, I Think We Might Have a Problem One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and yet expecting different results.
Read More
Classroom Assessment Literacy is Needed Now More Than Ever
Leveraging a Formative Assessment Approach to Inform Student Learning Progress and Teaching Practices in a Post-Pandemic Education Environment The pandemic has surfaced disparities among students with…
Read More
Practical Advice for Adapting Formative Assessment Practices to Remote Learning Contexts
Combining Good Pedagogy and Technology to Conduct Assessment Informs Future Instruction In a previous post, we discussed what is the same and what is different about the formative assessment proc…
Read More
Keeping up the PACE
Evaluating Grade 8 Student Achievement Outcomes for the NH PACE Program, an Innovative Assessment System This is the third in a series of posts by our 2020 summer interns and their mentors b…
Read More
Part 2: A Deep Dive into Summative Classroom Assessment in a Remote or Hybrid Learning Environment
What’s the Same and What’s Different about Classroom Assessment in 2020-2021? Those responsible for summative classroom assessment in 2020-2021 face a number of daunting challenges, not the least …
Read More