Does School Accountability Have to Be So Complicated?
Three Keys to Building Less-Complex—but High-Quality—Accountability Systems “Keep it Simple.” That’s one of the most common requests I hear when I work with education leaders on the design of school...
View ArticleImproving Accountability Through Authentic Community Engagement
Five Common Pitfalls States and Districts Should Avoid The nation’s K-12 students need more support than ever in the wake of a pandemic that cost them countless learning opportunities. State and...
View ArticleFederal Innovative Assessment Pilot: Now Open to All States
U.S. ED Encourages States to Apply; $22 Million Potentially Available In a bid to get more states to develop “innovative” assessments, the U.S. Education Department has lifted the cap on its...
View ArticleCan We Reduce Testing in K-12 Schools?
Yes, But There Are Tradeoffs State testing has long been criticized for many reasons. Its use as the main measure in high-stakes accountability systems has led to well-documented negative effects on...
View ArticleThree Common Misconceptions About State Assessments
Proficiency, Comparability and Instructional Utility Sit down, everyone! It’s time for a quick pop quiz on statewide testing. Here are the three questions: Do state assessment results inform...
View ArticleDo We Really Need to Test All Students Every Year?
How We Can Survive—Even Thrive—With Less Testing Will Lorié and I recently wrote about a forthcoming study where we examined several different approaches for reducing the footprint of state testing....
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You Can Get The Accountability System You Want
Without Waiting for ESSA Reauthorization Since 1994, federal law has required states to have school accountability systems as a condition for receiving Title 1 funds. States often claim that federal...
View ArticleHow Test Prep Works Against the Spirit of Formative Assessment
And What We Can Do About It As a classroom assessment specialist, I understand that formative assessment is essential for good teaching and learning. Teachers closely observe students, using a wide...
View ArticleThreats to the Validity of Accountability Systems, Part 1:
Simplicity vs. Complexity Those of us who work in K-12 education have been doing a lot of soul-searching about accountability: what makes it work well, where it stumbles, and how it can improve. One...
View ArticleThreats to the Validity of Accountability Systems, Part 2:
Precision vs. Actionability In our previous blog post, we described one potential threat to the validity of accountability systems: balancing the complexity and simplicity of a system’s design. In...
View ArticleThreats to the Validity of Accountability Systems, Part 3:
Supporting Formative vs. Summative Feedback In this last of three blogs, we want to discuss a third potential threat to the validity of accountability systems. Unlike the first two, this threat is...
View ArticleIssues That Loom Large for K-12 Assessment and Accountability:
Reflecting on 2023 and Looking Ahead to 2024 It is a privilege to reflect on another terrific year at the Center for Assessment and exciting to turn the page on a new year. We were active on many...
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The Future of Assessment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
The Debut of Gemini Forecasts the Disruption of Testing For those of us working in disciplinary areas of educational assessment who are afraid of change, I am afraid that the world at large has some...
View ArticleA Call for Extending Open Access in K-12 Education
Why We Must Prioritize Sharing Knowledge One of the things I really appreciate about the Center for Assessment is our commitment to sharing knowledge. We strongly believe that it’s not enough to...
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Assessment Guidance for Portraits of Learners
Design Considerations for Implementing Exhibitions of Learning “Portraits of graduates” (or “portraits of learners” more generally) can be powerful entry points for conversation around college- and...
View ArticleDesigning Inclusive K-12 Assessments
Five Tips to Help You Plan for Accessibility As an optimist and a planner, I’m a big fan of New Year’s. This new year, as I join the Center for Assessment team, I’m full of plans. High on my list—and...
View ArticleA Flawed Approach to Supporting Teacher Learning: ‘Cruel Optimism’
Professional Learning Requires Collaboration and Systemic Support I underline sentences and write in the margins when I read something that resonates with me. But recently, in a book I’m reading, I...
View ArticleAssessing Students’ Creative Thinking
Principles for Design and Use My colleagues and I have spent the past several years writing about promising instructional and assessment practices to cultivate 21st century skills in K-12 schools. We...
View ArticleEthical Thinking as a 21st Century Skill
Challenges in Definition and Assessment Education leaders have long argued for the importance of preparing students for an increasingly global, interconnected, and technologically complex world. The...
View ArticlePeer Review: Can Emerging Programs Meet the Requirements?
Challenges for Through-Year and Other Innovative Test Designs If you had asked me last year whether the U.S. Department of Education’s (USED) assessment peer review would work for emerging assessment...
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