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

What’s Even Going On?

Collecting Data on Student Experiences to Understand Student Learning in Light of COVID-19 As the school year gets underway, one […]
October 8, 2020

Accountability Interrupted: Guidance for Collecting, Evaluating, and Reporting Data in 2020-2021

This paper provides guidance to help education leaders address the challenges of data collection and reporting in light of the […]
September 30, 2020

Restart and Recovery: The Outlook for School Accountability

This paper, supported by the Council of Chief State School Officers, provides guidance to help education leaders tackle accountability design […]
September 29, 2020

2020 Reidy Interactive Lecture Series

Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Assessment and Accountability Agenda Date/Time Topic August 11, 20203:30 – 5:00pm EDT Assessment for […]
September 16, 2020

Meeting the Moment: A Novel Format for RILS to Address Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Reidy Interactive Lecture Series (RILS) is one of the highlights for Center associates and our colleagues each year. It’s […]
July 29, 2020

Rethinking School Accountability for the 2020-2021 School Year

State and district leaders are working hard to prepare for in-person schooling in 2020-2021 while also planning for hybrid models […]
July 23, 2020

One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Dealing with Exceptionality in State Accountability Systems

School characteristics or context can often impede a state’s ability to produce or implement a standard accountability system for all […]
June 29, 2020

We Are Part of the Problem

An Argument for a Renewed Commitment to Anti-Racism in Educational Assessment and Accountability Over the past few weeks, the country […]
June 22, 2020

Carpe Diem: Evolving Education After COVID-19

How a Much-Needed Transformation to Teaching and Learning Can Emerge From the COVID-19 Crisis Graduates today, more than ever, will […]
April 29, 2020

Program Evaluations Under COVID-19

A Guest Post by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation Juan D’Brot and the Center are pleased to […]
April 28, 2020