Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Elementary School (K-5)

Measuring What Really Matters

In this Kappan article, the authors suggest that current assessment systems are largely “flawed” and that they should be improved through the addition of performance assessments. The article describes a brief history of the failed 1990s performance assessment movement and how many of those problems have been corrected. The authors support their recommendation for a more balanced assessment […]

RAND Education Assessment Finder

From the website: “The RAND Education Assessment Finder is a web-based tool that provides information about assessments of K-12 students’ interpersonal, intrapersonal, and higher-order cognitive competencies. Practitioners, researchers, and policymakers can use it to explore what assessments are available, what they are designed to measure, how they are administered, what demands they place on students […]

What Are Teachers’ and School Leaders’ Major Concerns About New K-12 State Tests?

The implementation of new consortia-based tests (Smarter Balanced and PARCC) has created concern among both educators and school leaders about increased test difficulty, score accuracy, technology, and educator readiness to prepare students for the new assessments. In this brief report, the authors used a survey to analyze educator and school leader beliefs and concerns about the new tests. The […]

Teaching NGSS Engineering Design Through Media

This resource houses a collection of activities and professional development resources drawn from programs such as WGBH’s Design Squad Nation and the Engineering is Elementary® project at the Museum of Science, Boston. These media-based resources illustrate and deepen teachers’ understanding of the Next Generation Science Standards and help teachers bring engineering alive for students at […]

Lesson Planning Materials

This website includes a variety of tools for teachers to create lessons, classroom assessments, and presentations. It also provides tools for students. Its lesson creation tool enables teachers to build lessons around any of the PBS videos on the website. For each video there are also tools such as teaching tips and discussion questions. The […]

What We Know About Creativity (4Cs Research Series)

From the introduction: “Creativity is widely acknowledged to be a key 21st century skill, and it is included in many countries’ lists of desired college and career-ready outcomes for students…The well-documented, shifting global paradigm from manufacturing to knowledge-based to innovation economies makes the ability to solve problems creatively a necessary skill for educational and workforce […]