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

Florida’s School Grade Scores: Final Report

This paper is the final report of the work commissioned by the Florida Department of Education to examine unexpected declines […]
August 2, 2010

Using Growth Data to Improve Learning, Teaching, and School Functioning

This presentation reviews four key lessons learned about growth to date and discusses three key areas that will make growth […]
June 22, 2010

2009 Reidy Interactive Lecture Series

Next Generation Assessment and Accountability Systems October 1st-October 2nd Agenda Session I Public Education SystemsPeter McWalters, Former Commissioner of Rhode […]
October 2, 2009

Comparing Different Accountability Measures: Status, Improvement, Index, Growth

This paper examines the differences in the philosophies behind four different school accountability metrics: status, safe harbor (improvement), index, and […]
June 16, 2009

Growth, Standards and Accountability

Over the last decade, large-scale annual testing has provided states with unprecedented access to longitudinal student data. Current use of […]
April 5, 2009

2008 Reidy Interactive Lecture Series

Validating Assessment and Accountability Programs September 25th-26th Agenda Session I Vicissitudes of the ValidatorsHenry Braun, Boston College Session II Moderated […]
September 26, 2008

Who Are the 2% Students and How Do We Design Test Items and Assessments? (Paper)

The modified alternate assessment option in new No Child Left Behind (NCLB) regulations allows the development and implementation of an […]
June 10, 2008

Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Student Growth

This paper situates current growth-to-standard approaches within a larger domain of statistical models, including those based solely on achievement as […]
March 19, 2008

2007 Reidy Interactive Lecture Series

English Language Learner Assessment and Accountability: Critical Considerations for Design and Implementation September 27th – 28th Agenda Session I Setting […]
September 28, 2007

Using Student Longitudinal Growth Measures for School Accountability

There are multiple ways to implement common design decisions for a growth model consistent with the underlying principles of No […]
September 17, 2006