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

Recommendations Regarding the Louisiana School Accountability System

Recommendations for the design of the Louisiana school accountability system, including how to combine data from different indicators, set growth […]
October 25, 1998

Calculating and Reducing Errors in the Evaluation of Adequate Yearly Progress

Presentation at the 1997 CCSSO Annual Large-scale Assessment Conference; discusses systems of evaluating & adequate yearly progress as well as […]
June 15, 1997

What Works? State Accountability Indicators to Promote Validity, Equity, and Improvement

Presentation at the AERA Special Interest Group on School Indicators and Profiles; uses examples from several states to highlight need […]
March 31, 1997