A significant movement is underway across the nation to design K-12 assessment systems that better equip stakeholders to provide an equitable and excellent education to each child. While some of these innovations emerged before the pandemic, the massive disruption to instruction fueled a new urgency to rethink the potential of assessments to drive…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 schools are under immense pressure to meet the diverse needs of students. But policies and practices have not evolved quickly enough to meet those needs -- and as a result, the system continues to fail far too many young people. In "Levers of Change: How State Policies Support District…

States use their accountability systems to identify low-performing schools, which can receive added support and are expected to improve. Alternative schools serve students whose needs are not met in a regular school. They often serve at-risk students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. Given this unique population, the Government…

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…

In 2010, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for K-12 English language arts/literacy and mathematics. CCSS are a state-led effort to define the knowledge and skills students need to graduate from high school…

Students, teachers, and school leaders are seeking flexibility and supports to enable powerful, personalized learning experiences both inside and outside of the traditional classroom. In personalized learning, instruction is tailored to each student's strengths, needs, and interests--including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when,…

This research examines how public school principals in Kentucky perceive their new teacher evaluation system and the proficiency exam they must take and pass in order to evaluate their staff. An online survey was developed and 308 out of an estimated 1,100 working school principals across Kentucky responded, yielding a response rate of 28%.…

Despite the American promise of equal educational opportunity for all students, persistent achievement gaps among more and less advantaged groups of students remain, along with the opportunity gaps that create disparate outcomes. However, the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) represents an opportunity for the federal…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), examines through four lines of study to determine how college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. This brief presents findings from C-SAIL's…

Introduces a project initiated at Northern Kentucky University to prepare for the establishment of a center in the northern region of the state as a result of a legislative mandate to establish an environmental education center. Involves (n=45) teacher participants in the survey component of needs assessment and identifies priority environmental…

This paper summarizes some studies designed to measure the effectiveness of reforms brought about by the Kentucky Educational Reform Act and the changes resulting from the implementation of the current assessment system, the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS). Results of one study indicate that the use of the writing portfolio did…

This study examined first-year teachers' ability to assess their students. The researcher collected lesson plans submitted by each of the Kentucky New Teacher Internship Program (K-TIP) interns in one county during 1996-97 and 1997-98. The lesson plans came from 32 elementary, 11 middle, and 7 high school K-TIP interns. The researcher copied…

The Kentucky Department of Education has developed the merit rating as a means of providing special recognition to middle school and high school curricular areas that are of superior quality. When a school wishes an area of the curriculum to be considered for a merit rating, the principal requests an evaluation; an evaluation team is selected and…

This report compares the assumptions and values embedded in scoring criteria used in five states (Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oregon, and Vermont) for alternate assessments of students with significant cognitive disabilities. The five states use different alternate assessment approaches, including portfolio assessment, performance assessment,…

As part of a continuing assessment of educational needs in a seven-state region, researchers conducted a verification study to check the validity of educational needs first identified in fiscal year (FY) 1980. The seven states comprise Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This report describes assessment…