Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Elementary School (K-5)

A First Look at Early Literacy Performance in Massachusetts

Massachusetts commissioned WestEd to conduct a study of the state’s K-3 student reading skills. WestEd’s report, authored by Mariann Lemke, Dan Murphy, Aaron Soo Ping Chow, Hayley Spencer, and Angela Zhang, provides insights into indicators of Massachusetts students showing early signs of reading difficulties. WestEd researchers examined literacy screening assessment data collected by districts and […]

English Learner (EL) Pre-Referral Flow Chart Questions

This decision-making flow chart includes target questions that Child Study teams or MTSS teams should address when working through the pre-referral decision-making process. Each school or district may modify these questions to reflect their own policies and procedures, but the outline of this flow chart provides some key decision points that should be considered when […]

A Community Engaged Framing: Building Successful Community Engagement for Schools and Families of Bilingual Students Through Inquiry

Senior Program Associate Julie Webb was part of a research team exploring ways to nurture family-school partnerships in service of student learning. This article summarizes the team’s work on developing and testing a framework for schools to utilize in their family engagement efforts, particularly with bilingual families. The framework outlines user-friendly guidance and tools for […]

Fundamentals of Learning

This framework outlines three constructs for student learning — how students make meaning, participate and contribute, and manage their learning.

Five Attributes of Self-Assessment

This resource helps teachers plan and implement self-assessment routines, so students can consider their progress in learning new skills and knowledge to determine where they are in relation to the learning goals.