When the coronavirus pandemic was declared a public health crisis in March 2020, school psychologists were forced into situations where face-to-face interaction with their students was discouraged and in some cases, prohibited. Consequently, the traditional practice of school psychology abruptly ended. Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and…

After passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, states assumed greater responsibility for designing their own accountability and assessment systems. ESSA requires states to measure "higher order thinking skills and understanding" and encourages the use of open-ended performance assessments, which are essential for…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) opened up new possibilities for how student and school success are defined and supported in American public education. States have greater responsibility for designing and building their assessment and accountability systems. These new opportunities to develop performance assessments are critically important…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were created in response to the shortcomings of No Child Left Behind era standards and assessments. Among those failings were the poor quality of content standards and assessments and the variability in content expectations and proficiency targets across states, as well as concerns related to the economic…

Imagine administering an online standardized test to an entire class of 11th-grade students when, halfway through the exam, the server holding the test hits a snag and throws everyone offline. Imagine another scenario in which an elementary school has very few computers so teachers must bus their students to the local high school for a timed test.…