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

Accountability Systems Must Offer More Than School Grades

School accountability systems encompass more than what is reflected in school grading systems, which can skew how school quality is seen.
January 19, 2023

Reflecting on Lessons Learned in Assessment and Accountability in Education in 2022

Scott Marion reflects on what we have learned after another year of recovery after COVID’s interruptions to assessment and accountability in education.
December 28, 2022

A 10-Step Guide for Incorporating Program Evaluation Into the Design of Educational Interventions

We explain how to incorporate program evaluation in education after you have organized your program to connect it to your evaluation.
December 14, 2022

The Pandemic has Changed the Accountability Landscape

We explore what a national survey tells us about the pandemic impact on accountability systems and how states can prepare for the future.
November 23, 2022

Next Generation School Accountability in Utah: A Report of the Utah Accountability Redesign Advisory Committee to the Utah State Board of Education

The report presents recommendations from the Accountability Redesign Advisory Committee for the redesign of Utah’s School Accountability System. The overarching […]
November 23, 2022

Connecting Evaluation Principles to Improvement Science

Improvement science can address educational issues, but only with program evaluation can its efficacy in improving outcomes be measured.
November 17, 2022

School Accountability in Flux: Results from a National Survey

The pandemic has changed the accountability landscape. States are experiencing different challenges as they restart their ESSA accountability in 2022. […]
November 17, 2022

But How Do We Know It’s Working?

Program evaluation can demonstrate the desired outcomes of educational initiatives, programs, and other “things” are coming to fruition.
November 15, 2022

2022 Reidy Interactive Lecture Series

Assessment and Accountability to Monitor and Support Learning Recovery Agenda Thursday, September 22nd Time Topic 9:00am Welcome: Best Practices in […]
September 22, 2022

Mobility Matters When Designing More Equitable School Accountability Systems

Hear from a Center intern on his work studying performance mobility in contemporary school accountability systems.
September 13, 2022
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