The decisions states make regarding what their assessments look like and what kind of information they produce inevitably shape instruction. Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ushered in an era of testing-based accountability for schools, state assessments have been governed by a set of design decisions that emphasize easily generated,…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) cemented a standardized testing assessment culture in the United States but research has highlighted the inequities (Au, 2020; Dixon, 1978; Grodsky et al., 2008; Khan, 2020; Moses & Nanna, 2007), unreliability (Hunt et al., 2010; Pizmony-Levy & Green Saraisky, 2016) and negative impacts (Berryhill et al., 2009;…

State leaders have long recognized the value of statewide tests. Many had well-developed testing systems long before the No Child Left Behind Act, signed in 2002, required annual assessments in grades 3-8. Another sign of that recognition is the recent plethora of new state testing requirements for K-3 students. But would states continue to test…

Using narrow test scores as the only means of accountability does not serve students, teachers, or schools. Jonathan E. Collins writes that policy makers and educators should consider accountability as an education system designed to be accountable to the best version of students. This means assessing outcomes that policy makers too easily…

Despite many calls, there is little research addressing teachers' knowledge of reading assessments and how they utilize assessments for reading instruction. Therefore, the current research developed and validated a reliable measure of teachers' perceptions and knowledge of reading assessments, called the "Perceptions and Knowledge of…

The move toward assessments that measure student growth, rather than just proficiency, has been perceived as an improvement in state accountability systems. However, Michael Watson explains that, for many students, these measures present an incomplete picture. Because they are based on grade-level assessments, any growth achieved by students who…

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests' instructional relevance.…

Teacher-focused accountability started to ramp up in the United States in 2007-2010 as the focus of accountability shifted from schools to individual teachers. Since that time, there has been a remarkable amount of change to the way that teachers are evaluated, and music teachers have been placed squarely under the microscope of accountability. In…

Education reform legislation has led to an upwelling of mandatory teacher evaluation for all elementary, middle school, and high school educators, including those who teach special education. While this reform effort aimed to improve overall teacher effectiveness and student learning outcomes, the teacher evaluation for special education is a…

In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retracted the federal government's prior control over states' teacher evaluation systems, permitting more local control. Kevin Close, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, and Clarin Collins collected information from states to determine the degree to which states were…

Solid, well-grounded teachers can be instrumental in solving the problems facing our schools and students because it is successful teachers who are the most valuable, in-school contributors to our students' success. The importance of teacher preparation programs (TPPs) in developing quality teachers has been reinforced by researchers who have…

This issue brief discusses opportunities for states under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to redesign systems of assessments to support student-centered learning. In addition, this brief introduces "balanced systems of assessments" and "assessment literacy" as two key concepts required for long-term sustainable systems…

Couched within a larger critique of assessment practices and how they are used to stigmatize African American children, the authors examine teachers' instructional practices in response to demands of increasing test scores. Many mathematics teachers might be unaware of how these test-driven instructional practices can simultaneously reflect…

Federal accountability requirements after the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 and the need to report progress for various disaggregated subgroups of students meant that the methods used to set and articulate performance standards across the grades must be revisited. Several solutions that involve either "a priori" deliberations…

This article chronicles the development of a portfolio system used primarily to assess special education high school students on a variety of traditional and non-traditional standards and skills. Developing, capturing, sharing, and assessing student learning can be problematic when traditional testing or classroom assessment methods are not an…