High-quality assessments help determine which students are on track and, importantly, which ones are falling behind and need additional support. This is true in a normal school year, and it is even more critical now because of the pandemic's massive disruption of schooling for the Nation's young people. The following policy recommendations from the George W. Bush Institute are presented for educational accountability: (1) Administer state annual exams and disseminate results; (2) Double down on rigor and high expectations for students; (3) Provide parents with clear, actionable information about state test results; (4) Make state annual exams the cornerstone of state accountability systems; and (5) Align federal pandemic relief to accelerate student learning.