Leading Education Systems With Purpose in an Incoherent Environment
Education leaders are often asked to make coherent decisions in an incoherent environment. But decisions that fit together logically are important.
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Latest Posts
How Can School Accountability Reflect the Purposes of Education?
To decide what accountability systems should measure, we must articulate the purposes of schooling. Then we can build systems that reflect them.
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Making Sense of Achievement Trends
We should pay attention to achievement trends, but recognize that trends rarely have a single, universal explanation.
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Reclaiming Accountability: From Labels to Learning
Accountability identifies schools that need support, but it must do better to help educators understand the problem and what to do next.
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Evaluating the Impact of Statewide School Accountability Systems
Are school accountability systems working as intended? As the U.S. Education Department offers states flexibility, it’s time to examine the evidence.
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What We’re Up To: Center Presentations at NCME & AERA
Check out our lineup of fascinating presentations at two of the assessment field’s big conferences, NCME and AERA.
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School Choice and Accountability: Why Families Need Better Information SystemsÂ
As public school choice expands, families need good information to help them make decisions. Accountability systems should provide that information.
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Reflecting on 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026
2025 brought many challenges to K-12 education. The Center for Assessment moves into 2026 with a clear-eyed vision in changing times.
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Accountability System Design Tensions
Why we keep adding measures to our school accountability systems and how we can harness the idea of subtraction to streamline them.
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Don’t Start With Assessment: Navigating State Involvement in 21st Century Competencies
Before states jump into assessing 21st century competencies, they need to step back to consider some key tradeoffs and questions.
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Building on a Strong Foundation: A New Chapter of Leadership at the Center
As three new leaders take the helm at the Center for Assessment, they share their vision for the future and the commitments that will guide them.
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What Is School Accountability? Untangling Definitions, Purposes and Possibilities
If accountability is to serve its purposes well, we need to imagine it as a necessary component of a broader system.
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Choosing a Growth Model: Far More Than Technical Factors
Nearly all states use a measure of student growth in their accountability systems. But how should they choose a model? Our new paper provides guidance.
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Teaching & Assessing 21st Century Skills: A Focus on Student Agency
Agency—the ability to control one’s own thoughts, processes and actions—is a key skill for students to master. But assessing that mastery is challenging.
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Subtraction in Assessment and Accountability (Re)Design
Resisting our urge to add design layers to assessment and accountability systems—and subtracting instead—can produce better solutions.
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We’re Better Together!
Collaboration defined our work in 2024 and is at the heart of the Center’s philosophy. When we push one another to hone our ideas, we reach new heights.
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Right-Sizing ESSA AccountabilityÂ
States can create an accountability mix that right-sizes federal requirements and their own priorities, by blending or separating the two.
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How Do State Leaders Want to Change the Every Student Succeeds Act?Â
ESSA is widely criticized, but our new survey shows that most assessment and accountability leaders favor few changes.
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