Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Grade Level: Middle School (6-8)

Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary Schools and Beyond

This report was written for educators and policymakers who are seeking ways to focus attention on the social and academic needs of newcomer adolescent students. Based on a three-year national research study funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, this report addresses the challenges and successes of implementing newcomer programs as shared by school […]

The Two-Way Immersion Toolkit

This resource provides extensive, detailed information on how to implement and maintain a two-way immersion or dual language program. The authors provide insight and guidance on choosing instructional models, creating lesson plans, and facilitating parent involvement. This resource is applicable to all state and local educational leaders, who are starting, continuing, or expanding their two-way […]

Principles of Effective Instruction for English Learners

The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) developed a set of seven principles of effective instruction for English learners (ELs). These principles are based on research on ELs and CAL’s extensive experience working with EL students and their teachers. CAL uses these principles to guide professional development for educators working with EL students. The seven principles […]

Linking Research With Practice: A Local Assessment Toolkit to Guide School Leaders

This tool helps teachers evaluate text complexity for literary and informational text, aiding teachers in their lesson and unit planning. In this brief resource, Karin Hess first describes the eight factors that affect text complexity. The resource includes the Hess Text Complexity Tools, which are rubrics with descriptors of increasing complexity that allows teachers to […]

Guide to Evaluating Assessments Using the CCSSO Criteria for High Quality Assessments: Focus on Test Content

Because the results from state assessments are often used for high stakes purposes, it is important that the assessments themselves are of high quality. In this publication, the authors propose a methodology for evaluating state assessments for summative purposes. They describe their methodology and offer a number of tools that states may use in their assessment evaluations. The author’s proposed methods […]

Considerations for State Leaders in the Design of School Accountability Systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act

The recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) differs significantly from its predecessor, known as the No Child Left Behind Act. The new ESSA provides only a narrow timeline for states to adjust their accountability systems. This publication provides initial guidance for this adjustment process. The author writes: “The purpose of this brief is to outline some of the […]