The purpose of this study is to study the performance of different methods (inverse probability weighting and estimation of informative bounds) to control for differential attrition by comparing the results of different methods using two datasets: an original dataset from Portland Public Schools (PPS) subject to high rates of differential…

This roadmap provides a description of the activities involved in the development of the State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) (SPP/APR Indicators C11 and B17) due to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) on April 1, 2015. The roadmap is intended to support states with completing Phase I of the SSIP process. This document provides…

Maryland's demanding new Kindergarten Readiness Assessment was administered statewide for the first time. Its results are revealing and sobering. Many states do not even check in any systematic way on their children's readiness for kindergarten, and in previous years, Maryland used metrics based on modest expectations, outdated standards, and…

Students with significant cognitive disabilities present an assessment dilemma that centers on access and validity in large-scale testing programs. Typically, access is improved by eliminating construct-irrelevant barriers, while validity is improved, in part, through test standardization. In this article, one state's alternate assessment data…

Recent educational accountability efforts have married student assessments with reform mandates and sanctions. As a result, students--beginning in early elementary grades--are feeling the pressures of this new era of high-stakes accountability. This article chronicles a story of the consequences of high-stakes testing on a father and his son.…

The purpose of this document is to support States in writing the narrative for Phase I of the State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP). It provides an outline for States to use in organizing their narrative content to ensure that all required components are addressed. The outline includes considerations on information States might include in their…

While many teachers continue to ignore the practice of assessing student achievement in physical education, recent federal pressures to include student assessment data in teacher evaluation systems has shown that assessment of student outcomes is here to stay. Though there is a strong tradition of assessing teacher practice in physical education,…

This document provides an overview of the critical role of fiscal data in state Part C systems. This information is intended to help state Part C lead agency staff better understand strategic fiscal policy questions, the fiscal data elements needed to address those questions, and the benefits of using these data. Fiscal data provide powerful…

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has long advocated that any meaningful understanding of "effective" teaching must be rooted in results for kids. Whatever else they accomplish in the classroom, effective teachers improve student achievement. It seems like common sense. Yet, until recently, it has been an exceptional way of…

This article reports on findings based on analyses of a unique dataset collected by ACT that includes information on student achievement in a variety of subjects at the high-school level. The authors examine the relationship between teacher effect estimates derived from value-added model (VAM) specifications employing different student learning…

We propose the development of a "population" of high-quality assessment tasks that cover the performance goals set out in the "Common Core State Standards for Mathematics." The population will be published. Tests are drawn from this population as a structured random sample guided by a "balancing algorithm."

Prior to the mandatory testing and reporting required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), school improvement efforts were shown to lack coherence (Newman, Smith, Allensworth, & Bryk, 2001) and often included conflicting programs (Hatch, 2002). Part of the theory of performance-based accountability in general, and NCLB in particular, was…

Wake County Public School System's (WCPSS) 102 elementary schools have implemented standards-based grading. This grading practice is aligned with North Carolina's Student Accountability Standards and the WCPSS Promotion/Intervention policy. Standards-based report cards were designed to reflect student mastery of state standards and provide an…

This action research study was conducted for purposes of changing the formal evaluation for school administrators to one constructed around the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) 2008 standards, inclusive of multifaceted components aimed to increase the active participation of both the evaluator and the individual being…

Evaluators face a number of challenges in using student assessment data, given varying state and federal accountability requirements. Approaches to measuring student progress and specific characteristics of state assessment systems influence how data can be used. The continuous changes to state assessment systems and data create a significant…