This paper explores and reflects on the issues state policy needs to address in the long-term to support a transformation of K-12 education systems. Personalized learning and competency-based education systems, designed to ensure equity, hold promise to prepare all students for success in college, career and civic life. This report shares…

"Making Career Readiness Count 3.0" provides an analysis of how the 50 states and the District of Columbia are including and incentivizing measures of career readiness in their new accountability systems under ESSA, as well as an analysis of state-level accountability systems in states with dual systems. This report is the result of a…

This article explores assessment policy in two European universities with different political, historical and social backgrounds: the University of Glasgow and Tallinn University. The University of Glasgow is a well-established Russell Group university in the UK; Tallinn University is a relatively new university in post-Soviet Estonia, shaped by…

The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), continues to require states to disaggregate participation and performance data at the state level for all students and student subgroups. This report presents information on publicly reported…

The study was conducted in order to reveal pre-service English teachers' conceptions of assessments regarding improvement, school accountability, student accountability and irrelevance as well as relations between different conception purposes. It also aimed to examine how participants' conceptions of assessment differ in relations to their…

This chapter is a research summary of the author's doctoral dissertation completed in May, 2015, which investigates the way Standardized Assessment (SA) is used in state educational accountability structures. This quasi-experimental quantitative study found that SA scores trend towards consistency over time, and that there is additional variance,…

On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, legislation to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESSA replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the previous version of ESEA, and also supersedes the ESEA waivers created by the U.S. Department of Education to provide states…

Nationally, results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; NCES, 2013) exams in mathematics and reading indicate no significant improvement over time in the percentage of students scoring at advanced levels in any age group. While progress is being made in raising the achievement of students in the lowest 10%, the achievement of…

For decades, the United States has struggled to make good on its commitment to prepare all its young people, not just some, for the opportunities and responsibilities that await them after high school. The education system has worked to define what kids need to know and be able to do to maximize their options. In this article, the authors discuss…

This technical assistance paper provides policy and guidance to individuals with test administration responsibilities in adult education programs. The Florida assessment policies and guidelines presented in this technical assessment paper are appropriate for state and federal reporting. Therefore, guidance and procedures regarding the selection…

The Adult High School (AHS) program enables an adult no longer enrolled in public high school to complete the required courses and state assessments to earn a standard high school diploma. Course requirements are in accordance with standards established by the state. A program of instruction for both traditional and co-enrolled AHS students shall…

One measure of current education reform in Hong Kong is reporting school performance to the public to increase the transparency and accountability of schools, enhance parents' right of access to information, and provide guides for choosing schools. This article examines the controversies and politics involved and shows how the sociopolitical…

This article examines a government attempt to impose testing of 4-year-olds as a baseline against which to "hold primary schools accountable" for children's subsequent progress. It examines the various forms of baseline testing in this experiment and analyses the misleading claims made for the "predictive validity" of baseline…

Traditional grading practices have been used for over one hundred years, and to date, there have been no meaningful research reports to support it. As such, some schools are transitioning to standards-based grading, a practice based upon several evidence-based principles. The purpose of this research primer is to provide an overview of the…

During the 2013-2014 school year, the Shaker Heights, Ohio City school district was mandated to change its evaluation process as part of the Race to the Top initiative. Although not required by the federal or state Departments of Education, the Shaker Heights City school district tasked all members of their faculty and staff, including school…