Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Keyword: Accountability

The Common Core State Standards: Insight into Their Development and Purpose

To assist states in answering questions on how the Common Core State Standards were developed and why, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) worked with David T. Conley, Co-Chair of the Validation Committee for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, to publish this document. In the paper, Conley addresses the following: the rationale […]

Using Student Growth Percentiles During the Assessment Transition: Technical, Practical and Political Implications

This paper highlights technical, practical, and policy considerations for using growth percentiles during the assessment transition (generally 2014 to 2015) period to support state accountability efforts, and it recommends analyses and guidelines to help inform decisions in light of these considerations. It notes that while there are similarities across different states, the challenges of incorporating […]

Assessment in Elementary and Secondary Education: A Primer

The following is a summary of this publication from the Congressional Research Service.  “This report provides a framework for understanding various types of assessments that are administered in elementary and secondary schools. It broadly discusses various purposes of educational assessment and describe comprehensive assessment systems. Common assessment measures currently used in education are described, including […]

Second Year of Assessments Communications Toolkit

The Council of Chief State School Officers developed this toolkit to help states and school districts communicate before, during, and after the 2016 assessment testing window. This toolkit includes a broad number of adaptable communications resources ranging from talking points to a parent letter. Spanish translations are also available.  Users are advised to download the full toolkit, then selectively pick and adapt resources […]

The Assessment Transition Communications Toolkit

This toolkit is one of two developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to help state and school districts communicate testing information before, during, and after the assessment window this spring. This toolkit is for states transitioning to a new assessment this year. (For states continuing with a second year of the […]