Many changes during an assessment transition are motivated by demand from the field for shorter test time, faster score reporting, and assessment results that serve multiple purposes (e.g., informing instruction, measuring student progress, determining readiness for college and careers, evaluating teacher effectiveness, and servicing school accountability). While assessment‐program transition is not a new concept, the expected transition rate arguably has increased significantly. In the past, state education agencies (SEAs) usually had at least two years from (a) the ratification of the legislative mandate for a new assessment program to (b) its first operational administration. More recently, however, the expected timeline for transitioning to a new assessment program often is one year or less. This paper examines the impact of those timelines on SEAs.
