Accountability

Accountability Resources

The Center for Assessment partners with education leaders to design, refine, and evaluate accountability systems that balance equity, transparency, and technical rigor. Grounded in research and best practices, our work ensures these systems address local priorities while meeting high standards for validity and utility. We provide thought leadership on reimagining accountability frameworks to better support educational equity, improve outcomes, and enhance stakeholder trust. Whether building new systems or optimizing existing ones, we collaborate to create solutions that drive meaningful, sustainable improvements in schools and student learning.


Recent Accountability Projects

Accountability Documentation

The New Mexico Public Education Department is developing technical documentation of the state’s accountability system. The goal of this work is to increase transparency and ensure year-to-year consistency in implementation of the accountability business rules.

Setting Accountability Performance Standards

The Arkansas Department of Education is designing a process to establish new standards for the state’s school accountability system. It will consider a school’s performance across multiple prioritized measures and allow grades to be reported for overall school performance and for two or more priority indicators.

Modeling Growth In Delaware

In state accountability systems, it is important that each indicator provide valuable and independent information about schools. A team from the Center—Senior Associates Will Lorié and Damian Betebenner and Executive Director Scott Marion—is working with a Delaware advisory group to investigate ways to model student academic growth.


Recent Accountability Blog Posts

Assessment and Accountability Recommendations for the Next Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

This paper provides a set of assessment and accountability recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. […]
January 27, 2020

Is Our Work in Educational Assessment and Accountability Helping to Improve Student Learning and the Student Experience?

Applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to Work Through Career-Life Crises and Better Understand What Actions Support Student Outcomes As 2019 […]
January 22, 2020

The Best Things Come in Threes

Evaluating the Utility of Educational Accountability Systems: Focusing on the Link Between Accountability Identification and Improvement Using a Three-Step Approach […]
December 16, 2019

Theories of Action Aren’t Enough: An Argument for Logic Models

A Practical Application of the Need to Fill the Gap Between Theories of Action and the Implementation and Evaluation of […]
November 24, 2019

Promoting Effective Practices for Subscore Reporting and Use

A Framework for Reporting Technically-Sound and Useful Subscores on State Assessments This is the fifth in a series of CenterLine […]
September 10, 2019

Improving Equity: What Makes Accountability Indicators Meaningful?

Ensure You’re Receiving Valuable Information Necessary to Support Student Equity and Improvement This is the third in a series of […]
August 22, 2019

Improving Equity: Understanding State Identification Systems under ESSA

Creating a Framework to Help Describe Differences in How States Identify Schools for Support and Improvement This is the second […]
August 14, 2019

Managing Changes that Affect Accountability Outcomes

This paper, supported by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), describes a logical framework and presents practical recommendations […]
June 30, 2019

Evidence of Improvement: Guidelines to Inform Exit Criteria for ESSA State Accountability Systems

This paper, supported by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), provides guidance to help states develop and validate […]
June 30, 2019

Understanding Nominal and Effective Weights in School Accountability Systems

Weights Assigned to Indicators May Not Reflect Their Actual Contribution to Final Scores States give a lot of weight to […]
May 23, 2019