Reflecting on 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026

A clear-eyed vision in changing times

As we leave 2025 behind, it’s a good moment to pause, reflect, and take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re headed. For the Center for Assessment, 2025 was both a year of remarkable productivity and an inflection point for the field of educational assessment and accountability. It was also a year of thoughtful leadership transition. Finally, it brought into sharper focus the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Center Publications

One of the defining features of 2025 was the strength, scope, and influence of the Center’s work to share our ideas on key issues in the field. There were far too many contributions to list them all, but here are a few highlights.

First, we issued two papers that reflected the collective position of the entire staff: The Case for State Testing and The Case for Statewide School Accountability Systems. These papers articulated why statewide assessment and accountability systems remain essential tools to improve student outcomes. The release of these papers was followed by well-attended webinars that brought together respected experts and leaders to discuss the ideas. Together, the papers and webinars were widely read, thoughtfully engaged, and continue to serve as a strong foundation for the work ahead.

Beyond these works, 2025 was a prolific year for individual and collaborative scholarship across the Center. Notable and well-received papers included:

• 21st Century Competencies: Guiding Principles for States and Districts (Brandt, Evans, & Domaleski), which addressed the challenge of defining and assessing constructs that extend beyond traditional academic skills.
• How Should States Choose a Growth Model (Marion, Domaleski, & Lorié), offers guidance to help states navigate the technical and practical considerations associated with measuring student progress.
• Making the Most of the Data We Have: A Five-Part Strategy for Challenging Times (D’Brot), which focused on leveraging existing data to support decision-making, which is more timely and relevant than ever, given new resource constraints. 
• Understanding Student Performance on State Assessments: Leveraging Multiple Sources of State Data for Strategic Guidance (Rupp & Pinsonneault), provides a framework to help education leaders examine and use student performance data for reporting, outreach, and planning purposes.
• Implementing Balanced Assessment Systems: A Practical Guidebook for Districts & Schools (Evans, Wylie, Landl, & Marion). Released by the National Academy of Education and the Center, this guidebook is designed to help put the ideas of Reimagining Balanced Assessment Systems into practice, providing district and school leaders with a concrete framework for examining the coherence, purpose, and balance of their assessment systems. 

At the close of the year, the fifth edition of Educational Measurement was released, co-edited by Center Board member Linda Cook. The volume includes a chapter on validity, co-written by Scott Marion, and a chapter on large-scale assessment in international contexts, co-written by Board Chair Henry Braun. 

The CenterLine blog also remained active and relevant throughout the year, with 44 posts published in 2025 alone. These blogs covered a wide range of timely topics and offered practical, accessible guidance for policymakers and practitioners seeking to improve assessment and accountability systems.

Leadership and Service to the Field

Several Center staff members continued to serve in influential leadership roles beyond the organization. Juan D’Brot was reelected to a three-year term on the executive committee of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, and Scott Marion was reappointed to the National Assessment Governing Board. Additionally, Laura Hamilton and Cara Laitusus continue to serve on the influential committee charged with revising the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. 

We were also proud to see two Center Board members receive well-deserved national recognition. Dr. Gerunda Hughes was named the recipient of the Louise Hay Award for Contributions to Mathematics Education, and Dr. Linda Cook received the 2025 E. F. Lindquist Award from the American Educational Research Association.

Leadership Transition

September 2025 marked an important transition for the Center. After a highly successful 10-year tenure as executive director, Scott Marion stepped into a new role as the Center’s principal learning associate. Fortunately, he will continue to play a vital role at the Center and will, no doubt, be as productive as ever—if not more so! 

I was honored to be named by the Board of Trustees as the Center’s new executive director, and especially pleased to do this work alongside Juan D’Brot and Carla Evans, who stepped into new roles as associate directors. This kind of planned, thoughtful leadership transition is a testament to the strength and health of the Center. It reflects a culture of trust, shared leadership, and long-term thinking, qualities that position the Center well for the future.

Entering 2026: Opportunities and Challenges

As we look ahead to 2026, we do so with a clear-eyed view of both opportunities and challenges.

At the federal level, we are seeing cuts and restructuring that have reduced support and oversight, alongside a growing emphasis on flexibility and waivers. These shifts place greater responsibility on states while also creating uncertainty about federal guardrails and capacity.

At the same time, the growth of artificial intelligence in education has exploded. What was experimental just a few years ago is now mainstream, reshaping instruction, assessment design, data use, and raising new questions about how to make the most of its benefits and safeguard against threats. I’m pleased to note that the Center will release a new resource, authored by Will Lorié and Nathan Dadey, addressing the applications and considerations of AI for large-scale assessment programs early in 2026. 

States are also investing heavily in early literacy initiatives, influenced by the expanding evidence base and policy momentum associated with the science of reading. The Center is working with many of these states to ensure the literacy assessments are technically defensible, accessible, and useful for their intended purpose.  

Meanwhile, many states and districts are grappling with declining enrollment and the reality that pandemic recovery remains slow or stagnant for many students. We are leveraging existing resources and working on new ones to help states and districts understand the impact of these influences and respond appropriately.  

Through it all, the Center for Assessment remains committed to serving as a trusted, non-partisan partner. Our role is not to chase trends, but to help states and districts leverage assessment and accountability thoughtfully, responsibly, and in service of improved student learning.

The past year was a good reminder of what can happen when thoughtful people work together with a shared sense of purpose. Looking ahead to 2026, we feel confident in the foundation we’ve built, clear-eyed about what lies ahead, and optimistic about the role strong assessment and accountability systems can play in improving learning for students.

Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages