Since 1973, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has gathered information about student achievement in mathematics. The NAEP assessment in mathematics has two components that differ in purpose. One assessment measures long-term trends in achievement among 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students by using the same basic design each time.…

Solving non-routine problems is a key competence in a world full of changes, uncertainty and surprise where we strive to achieve so many ambitious goals. But the world is also full of solutions because of the extraordinary competences of humans who search for and find them. We must explore the world around us in a thoughtful way, acquire knowledge…

Teachers may well have developed a more robust understanding of classroom assessment options, but they can still be caught off guard by misapplications of well-intended practices. Three issues, in particular, have created potential assessment missteps: the heightened rigor of the new content standards, the emphasis on using assessments for…

As test designers work to craft the new, common assessments set to debut in most of the nation's public schools in the 2014-15 school year, their goal is to provide all English-language learners (ELLs), regardless of their language-proficiency levels, the same opportunities to demonstrate their content knowledge and skills as their peers who are…

Assessment has become a popular buzzword on academic campuses over the last few decades. Most assessment models are designed to evaluate traditional learning structures. If we were to state simply the process of assessment, it might read like this: (1) what you want the students to learn; (2) how you want to teach the material; and (3) how you…

Deciding whether and how to use assessments to evaluate students' social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills requires the development and critical appraisal of an assessment plan. At the state, district, and school levels, education leaders and staff can benefit from reviewing best practices and using a structured format to arrive…

Education in the 21st century is awakening to a call for students who are not only proficient with academic content but who also have developed the social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills that are necessary for success in college and careers. This brief refers to that combination of knowledge, attitudes, and skills as SE…

Since 1973, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has gathered information about student achievement in mathematics. Results of these periodic assessments, produced in print and web-based formats, provide valuable information to a wide variety of audiences. They inform citizens about the nature of students' comprehension of the…

Concern about rigor is not new, but its importance has been raised with the advent of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). However, the CCSS are only the beginning on a journey to increasing rigor in school. Equally important is the instructional rigor that supports the standards. Instructional rigor focuses on the how--what actually happens in…

The call to ensure that every student, including students with disabilities, graduates from high school well prepared for college and careers is acknowledged by policymakers, professionals and business leaders. This policy brief was developed to provide guidance to state education policy leaders to support the goal of ensuring that students with…

Assessing individuals' social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills is a complex task. It requires careful consideration of the assessment purpose, rigor, practicality, burden, and ethics. Once you have considered these factors and have determined that you are, in fact, "Ready to Assess," you are ready to act and choose an…

The read-aloud accommodation is one of the most frequently used accommodations. Many educators need training to more confidently select, implement, and evaluate the use of the read-aloud accommodation. Planning by special education leaders can help ensure that test day goes smoothly for students who need the read-aloud accommodation.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed through an unprecedented, state-led initiative that drew on the expertise of teachers, parents, administrators, researchers and content experts from across the country. The Standards define a staircase to college and career readiness, building on the best of previous state standards in English…

Response to Intervention provides a continuum of instruction across intensity levels through multitiered intervention models. A lot of work to date has been devoted to how to configure tiers to ensure the appropriate increases in intensity. Much less work has been devoted to making adjustments "within" tiers to attempt to forestall the need for…

Growth-based approaches to federal accountability are receiving considerable attention because they have the potential to reward schools and teachers for improving student performance over time by measuring student progress at all levels of the performance spectrum, including progress by students who have not reached proficiency on state…