Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Early Learning

Understanding Formative Assessment: A Special Report

From the website summary: “Formative assessment is one of the most widely used – but poorly understood – instructional techniques. This special report highlights common misconceptions about the approach and shows how formative assessment differs from other kinds of assessments, such as summative or benchmark tests. It also illuminates some ways that educators can use […]

Common Core From a Tribal Perspective

In this Education Week commentary, education director Kevin Shendo (Pueblo of Jemez, N.M.) writes that the Common Core has opened the “door to opportunities that exist in challenging our teachers to make the diverse communities . . . an extension of their classrooms.” He suggests that the Common Core will only make a difference for American Indian students if it has “relevance […]

The Progress of Education Reform: Science in the Early Years

This paper discusses how early science instruction has positive effects not only on readiness and achievement within the subject but also in reading and mathematics. It claims that many children are unprepared to achieve in school, in part because of a low quality of science instruction in early-care settings. The author urges education leaders to […]

English Language Learners: A Growing – Yet Underserved – Student Population

This issue of the Progress of Education Reform presents research and data on the educational issues related to the US English language learner (ELL) population. The brief calls for urgency in supporting the fastest growing population of students in K-12 schools. Key takeaways from the research and data described in the brief include: Nearly one in 10 K-12 student in […]

Parent Roadmaps to the Common Core Standards – English Language Arts

The parent roadmaps provide guidance for parents about what their children are learning in grades K-8 and high school. It also provides grade-specific questions for parents to ask teachers regarding their children’s progress and grade strategies for parents to use to support their children at home. The roadmaps also display a three-year alignment that includes […]