Data from high-quality State assessments can inform instruction and help school leaders drive resources to the schools and students that need them the most. This dear colleague letter from the U.S. Secretary of Education reminds all who report and interpret student outcomes this year that assessment data has always been meant to be used…

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.…

Math in Common® (MiC) is a five-year initiative that supports a formal network of 10 California school districts as they implement the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M) across grades K-8. This research brief explores how best to select or develop and use classroom observation systems in order to document instructional shifts and…

The role of data analysis in the jobs of instructional leaders has become as commonplace as teachers creating lesson plans and taking roll in the classroom. Teachers and building leaders routinely use interim assessment data to develop thoughtful and robust instructional plans that address identified areas of student need. The link between the…

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 commonsense. Yet, until recently, it has been an exceptional way of…

By 2012, all of the states in this study had started implementing new or revised teacher and leader evaluation systems. There are many and varying updates to these systems, and some of them have been made to meet conditions for a state's federal "Race to the Top" (RTT) grant. Other updates have been made to meet conditions for a state's…

By 2012, all of the states in this study had started implementing new or revised teacher and leader evaluation systems. The systems include many and varying updates. In some cases, the updates were designed to meet conditions for a state's "Race to the Top" grant. In others, the updates were made to meet conditions for a state's waiver…

Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) released the first comprehensive study of assessment perceptions in 2012 that surveyed parents, teachers, and district administrators. In the intervening years, the landscape has shifted dramatically; indeed, it continues to shift every day. With new standards, accountability assessments, and ways of…

State policymakers are increasingly focused on closing the achievement gap and preparing all students to succeed in school and life. However, college and career readiness begins long before students enter high school or even a classroom. Differences in children's abilities appear as early as the first year of life, and research has shown that…

There has been little data collected on how much testing actually goes on in America's schools and how the results are used. So in the Spring of 2014, the Council staff developed and launched a survey of assessment practices. This report presents the findings from that survey and subsequent Council analysis and review of the data. It also offers…

Using data to redesign instruction is a means of increasing student achievement. Educators in Camden County (Georgia) Schools have used data from benchmark testing since 1999. They hired a commercial vendor to design a benchmark test that is administered four times a year and use the data to generate subject-area reports that can be further…

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has been using both the Sander's Value-Added and the North Central Association effect size models to identify and determine areas to focus on improving student achievement. This article will discuss the value of using both models to determine areas for improving student performance and measuring whether these…

This policy paper is the second in a Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB) series on accountability reporting. This paper describes several problems states have encountered in their initial school report-card efforts, some of the lessons they have learned, and some of the questions that must be answered. Following the introduction, the first…

The Florida case of "Sweeney v. Turlington" dramatically illustrates the confusion between measurement and evaluation and how measurement-oriented evaluation systems diminish the role of the evaluator. This article discusses the implications of this case, which challenged the validity of the Florida Performance Measurement System, a…

The application of the "report card" principle to educational accountability is described in this report, which summarizes 20 report cards now issued in the 15 states of the Southern Regional Education Board area. Specific state or local school data are not included. The following areas are summarized: mandates for reporting; the kind of…