Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Middle School (6-8)

Using Evidence to Strengthen Education Investments

The U. S. Department of Education issued this guidance “to provide State educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), schools, educators, and partner organizations with information to assist them in selecting and using ‘evidence-based’ activities, strategies, and interventions, as defined in Title VIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the […]

Building Common Core Skills: Beyond “Turn and Talk”

Many teachers rely on Turn and Talks or Think-Pair-Shares. These are great methods, but how can you build on them to prepare students for the demands of more complicated conversations? This resource provides a process (discussion norms, steps, video examples, and sentence starters) for building student stamina for participating in deeper constructive conversations.

Persuasion Across Time and Space (Grades 6-8)

This unit shows instructional approaches that are likely to help English language learns (ELLs) meet new standards in English language arts. The lessons address potent literacy goals and build on students’ background knowledge and linguistic resources. Built around a set of famous persuasive speeches, the unit supports students in reading a range of complex texts. […]

SEL Assess Resources

The University of British Columbia (UBC), with the support of the Edith Lando Charitable Foundation, has created a “Social & Emotional Learning Resource Finder,” a searchable collection of SEL resources for educators and adults who work with students. Within this site, there is a curated selection of SEL assessment resources (the link to this sub-collection is found […]

Foundations for Young Adult Success: A Developmental Framework

There is a growing recognition that strong academic skills alone are not enough for young people to become successful adults, and this comprehensive report offers wide-ranging evidence to show that what young people need to develop from preschool to young adulthood to succeed in college and career are factors related to non-cognitive, or social and […]

Evaluating the Content and Quality of Next Generation Assessments

This study’s purpose was to evaluate the quality of four standardized assessments – three new, multi-state assessments (ACT Aspire, PARCC, and Smarter Balanced) and a well-regarded existing state assessment (Massachusetts’ state exam [MCAS]) – to determine whether they met new criteria developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) for test quality. Three […]