About Us

The Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability (CSAA) at WestEd supports educators in the development and use of rigorous standards and student-focused assessment and accountability practices. Our work impacts students of all ages and learning paths, including early childhood, K-12, postsecondary, and career technical education.

We partner with clients nationwide, providing policy guidance, content expertise, and solutions that are responsive to local contexts. CSAA supports student-focused accountability systems that are customized and research-based to deliver fair and valid measurements of student performance, and we provide guidance for educators and policymakers on making the best use of results. Our work puts better student outcomes at the center of everything we do.

Supporting Balanced, Coherent, and Efficient Systems of Teaching and Learning

Building on the nationally recognized work of the Center on Standards & Assessment Implementation (CSAI), the newly expanded Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability (CSAA) continues to provide high-quality resources. Now expertise gained after 14 years of delivering technical assistance for states is coupled with WestEd services designed to improve teaching and learning and drive informed decision making about standards, assessment, and accountability at the federal, state, and local levels.

Who We Are and What We Do

We are dedicated to providing high-quality professional learning and technical assistance, research, tools, and other resources to inform decisions about standards, assessment, and accountability at multiple levels. Discover our expertise.

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CSAA Provides

Local Education Agencies

Local Education Agencies are working hard to respond to new federal guidelines, while continuously improving upon assessment systems, and ensuring assessments are appropriately aligned to support local education goals. At WestEd, we support educators, and the students they serve, with a comprehensive portfolio of services and professional learning opportunities that promote standards and assessment literacy to improve student performance and educator development across content areas. Leadership teams can also find guidance on the instructional and programmatic impact of policy changes as well as tools and resources to support implementation.

Explore CSAA services, additional resources, and Assessment System Visualizer.

Our partnership with WestEd provided multiple opportunities for authentic and pragmatic growth. The protocols developed allowed for structure to guide our curriculum, instruction and assessment work on a PK-12 level. Feedback and support from the WestEd team was timely, purposeful and specific. The use of real-time coaching allowed our leadership team and educator to learn from experts in the field who are grounded in research and best practice. The professional development we received was outstanding. The decision to partner with WestEd was an invaluable experience.”

Dr. Rachel Kluth
Assistant to the Superintendent for Secondary Instruction,  Brockport Central School District

State Education Agencies

State Education Agencies require responsive and reliable expertise, services, and evidence of student learning to facilitate scalable assessment systems. WestEd works to ensure assessments and items are fair, valid, and reliable to meaningfully measure achievement for all students. Our work supports educators in ensuring appropriate alignment with state standards, curriculum, and federal requirements. In addition, educators can review research and analysis regarding federal and state policy shifts, get support for rigorous college- and career ready standards, and attend professional learning that promotes standards and assessment literacy within the state context.

Explore CSAA services, State of the States interactive map, additional resources, and Assessment System Visualizer.

Collaborating with the professional staff from WestEd as part of our state assessment audit process allowed us to more clearly understand district needs as the first step in designing assessment literacy supports in Oregon. They helped us to design a district self-assessment survey and hosted several focus groups that helped us develop our understanding of current teacher and administrator assessment decision-making practices. While we realize that more research is needed, we would not have been able to conduct this research without their support. It was critical for us to engage them as independent research partners and they were engaged, competent, and thoughtful partners.”

Dr. Dan Farley
Director of Assessment, Oregon Department of Education

Federal level

Education partners

We collaborate with a range of entities, including test developers and researchers, responsible for designing large-scale assessment and accountability systems, and help expand the capacity of states and districts to develop and implement standards and assessments, inform curriculum and instruction, and report against accountability measures. In addition, we help organizations understand how states and districts are implementing education SAA policies; research critically important federal and state policy shifts; and provide guidance and resources on the instructional and program impact of federal and state-level policy changes.

Explore CSAA services, State of the States interactive map, and additional resources.

The WestEd team was top-notch. They were knowledgeable, skillful, and experienced; responded swiftly to questions and requests; took the initiative to deepen inquiries; and had long reach to connect with leading experts in the field as needed. When working in large-scale projects, it is of utmost importance to be able to trust and rely on the team supporting the goals. This is how I felt when working with WestEd, and I would welcome the opportunity to work with them again.”

Fernanda Kray
State Relations Specialist, WIDA

Expertise

Andrew Latham

415.615.3154

[email protected]

Andrew Latham is a Senior Managing Director, overseeing WestEd’s Assessment Design and Development and Assessment Research and Innovation content areas. For more than two decades, he has worked closely with national organizations, states, schools, and districts to develop innovative solutions for assessing and setting standards for students and teachers. A former English and mathematics teacher, Latham has spent his entire career in education and assessment, focusing on ways to enhance teacher quality and improve student learning. Read more about Andrew Latham.

Deb Sigman

916.492.4073

[email protected]

Deb Sigman is a Senior Managing Director at WestEd and the Co-Director of the Region 15 Comprehensive Center. Sigman focuses on the development and delivery of technical assistance for the integration of curriculum, assessment, and instruction – with an emphasis on training educators in the appropriate and constructive use of assessment results. She is a state and national education leader focusing on connecting assessments with enhanced student learning. Read more about Deb Sigman.

Patricia Armstrong

415.615.3135

[email protected]

Patricia Armstrong is the Director of Assessment Content in WestEd’s Assessment Design and Development program. She directs the development of assessment services and products for both general education and special populations. Her commitment to improving student learning is shown throughout her career in previous leadership roles developing customized mathematics standards, private educational consulting, and teaching at the elementary and middle school levels. Read more about Patricia Armstrong.

Joanne Jensen

415.615.3145

[email protected]

Joanne Jensen is the Director of Assessment Design and Development for WestEd’s Division 3 program. She supervises the development of open-response and selected-response items for the curricular areas of reading, mathematics, science, social studies, arts and humanities, practical living, and vocational studies. Jensen’s commitment to fair and valid assessment is evident throughout her extensive career experience and work with teachers in developing a range of student assessments and assessment tasks, and scoring performance tasks and constructed-response items using holistic and analytic scoring procedures. Read more about Joanne Jensen.

Steve Schneider

650.381.6410

[email protected]

Steve Schneider is the Senior Program Director of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program (STEM) at WestEd. The STEM program, spanning grades preK-16, offers a diverse portfolio of services and projects that enhance teaching and learning across all STEM subjects. Schneider serves as the Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Center for Assessment and Evaluation of Student Learning (CASEL) and also directs the National Center on Cognition and Mathematics Instruction. Read more about Steve Schneider.

Kerry Kriener-Althen

415.289.2338

[email protected]

Kerry Kriener-Althen is the Evaluation Director for Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS) program at WestEd. The CCFS Evaluation Team develops observational assessments that support children’s development in early care and education programs. Kriener-Althen has extensive experience leading research and evaluation in enter-based and home-based early care and education settings that serve infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The core of her work focuses on overseeing the development and field-testing of the Program for Infant/Toddler Care Program Assessment Rating Scale (PITC PARS) and the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP). Read more about Kerry Kriener-Althen.

Melinda Brookshire

805.484.8027

[email protected]

Melinda Brookshire is a Senior Program Associate in the Center for Child & Family Studies(CCFS) program at WestEd. CCFS strives promote the well-being, learning, and development of young children and their families, particularly those living in poverty, those who have experienced trauma, those who are dual language learners, and those with special needs. In her work in the field of early childhood education, Brookshire has led projects to develop and provide trainings in assessment, standards, and curriculum for teachers and administrators serving families and children ages 0–11. Read more about Melinda Brookshire.

Eric Crane

916.492.4080

[email protected]

Eric Crane is a Senior Research Associate in WestEd’s Assessment for Learning program. He leads and contributes to assessment and accountability research, development, evaluation, and technical assistance projects. Crane’s work focuses on building effective common formative practices, public school accountability, statewide and district data systems, survey and test design, applied statistics and psychometrics, and program evaluation. Read more about Eric Crane.

Molly Faulkner-Bond

[email protected]

Molly Faulkner-Bond is a Senior Research Associate in the English Learners and Migrant Education program at WestEd. Her work focuses on English learners, policy, and assessment. In this role, she collaborates with educators, researchers, and communities to strengthen the field of education research, increase the use and utility of education research results, substantively impact teaching and learning, and improve educational outcomes for linguistically and culturally diverse learners.

Christopher Harris

650.381.6422

[email protected]

Christopher Harris is a Senior Research Associate in WestEd’s Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) program. He has specialized professional competence in: the design and study of K–12 science assessments and curriculum materials, evaluation of science and engineering programs, research on science teaching and learning in K–12 classrooms, and the study of the design and design process of STEM learning environments. Read more about Christopher Harris.

Kevin King

435.655.1229

[email protected]

Kevin King is a Senior Assessment Manager in the Assessment Design and Development program at WestEd. His work focuses on the intersection of content validity and technical quality. King has extensive experience in test design for all content areas, including social studies and English language acquisition. King serves as the project manager for high-stakes assessment projects and provides content leadership for Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) projects, including test design and item specifications. Read more about Kevin King.

Bryan Hemberg

510.302.4298

[email protected]

Bryan Hemberg the Director of the Assessment for Learning program at WestEd and a Deputy Director for the Region 15 Comprehensive Center. Hemberg provides technical assistance to state and local education agencies as they pursue the development and implementation of aligned, equitable, and high-quality standards, assessment, and accountability systems under the ESEA, as amended by ESSA. He has extensive experience working with federal agencies, states, districts, and schools to improve outcomes for all students. Read more about Bryan Hemberg.

WestEd Collaboration

The true power of WestEd lies in our shared purpose. As we collaborate and innovate, we are shaping the futures of children, adults, and communities by addressing the complex challenges facing education today.Jannelle Kubinec, WestEd Chief Executive Officer

Success for every learner is WestEd’s prime focus and has been for more than five decades. A nonpartisan, nonprofit research, development, and service agency working with education and other communities throughout the United States and abroad, WestEd aims to improve education and other important outcomes for children, youth and adults.

The depth, diversity, and history of our work, coupled with our on-the-ground experience and research-based knowledge, give WestEd staff unique expertise in helping all learners — infants to adults — succeed in school and career.

WestEd staff meet the needs of our clients through research, evaluation, professional development, technical assistance, policy analysis, and other support.

Student-Focused Accountability System: Improve Learning Outcomes for Every Student

Curriculum & Instruction

Assessment

Standards

Who We Are and What We Do

CSAA Provides

Local Education Agencies

State Education Agencies

Federal level

Education partners

Expertise

Andrew Latham

Deb Sigman

Patricia Armstrong

Joanne Jensen

Steve Schneider

Kerry Kriener-Althen

Melinda Brookshire

Eric Crane

Molly Faulkner-Bond

Christopher Harris

Kevin King

Bryan Hemberg

WestEd Collaboration

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