Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Middle School (6-8)

What Works Best in Education: The Politics of Collaborative Expertise

From the introduction: “What we need…is a defensible and compelling narrative that leads to long-term, coherent and focused system-wide attention on student learning. I call this territory ‘the politics of collaborative expertise’. Its premise is that there is differential expertise across our schooling system and that there can be wide variation within schools. At the […]

Academic learning + social-emotional learning = national priority

High-quality schools not only ensure that all students are academically proficient in all subject matters, but also foster students’ reflection, social skills, perseverance, and positive mindsets. These latter skills and knowledge are developed through social and emotional learning (SEL). SEL involves the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, […]

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 […]