Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Elementary School (K-5)

Why Education Data?

This website provides a broad number of resources and tools to help policymakers and educators develop a successful data-use communications strategy. Spanning multiple topics, the resources cover the power of communications, using data to measure teacher effectiveness, and seizing important data-use communications opportunities such as back-to-school nights and state testing periods. According to the publishers: “DQC […]

Making whole-child education the norm

This policy brief describes research and policy initiatives that can make social and emotional skills a focal point in children’s education. The authors review the literature on how social and emotional skills develop, and how they are important drivers of cognitive skills, school, and life outcomes. The brief then discusses the role of educational policy […]

Independent Reviews of Instructional Materials

These reports were created as a resource for teachers, parents, state and district officials, and others with an interest in identifying Common Core-aligned instructional materials. The initial wave of reviews considered 20 published, K-8 math instructional series and “graded” them on a three-point scale. Although the reports are funded by entities with large commercial interests […]

STEAM Portal

This website features several helpful resources on integrating STEAM in the classroom. Contents include Tools & Tips, Workshops, Courses, and Certification.

What is STEAM?

This webpage introduces the concept of STEAM and how it differs from STEM. Along with other orienting information from its dropdown menu on “STEAM Basics,” including the page “How to STEAM,” this website provides teachers and administrators with practical information to integrate arts into cross-disciplinary areas of science, technology, and mathematics.

Assessment Opt-Out Policies: State Responses to Parent Pushback

The authors of this Education Commission of the States resource report that some states have clear policies on students opting out of state tests, while other states have less clear policies and some states remain silent on this issue – one that has grown in recent years with implementation of new standards-based assessments. The authors provide an […]