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Every year, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) hosts the National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA). This year’s conference, held June 24-26 in Orlando, focused on the theme Measure What Matters and Create Accountability for Equity, with the explicit goal of giving states a forum to share the best practices, strategies, research studies, resources, and innovative methods when measuring student learning and holding districts and schools accountable for educational progress.

CSAI was well represented at the conference, providing research, tools, and funding to support eight separate conference presentations. These presentations are summarized below, with links to additional details on each, including, as appropriate, any slides used.

A Rigorous Approach to Auditing Statewide Assessment Systems: Lessons Learned from Two States
CSAI co-presented with staff from two states that have recently audited their statewide assessments in an effort to create more balanced systems.
Presenters: Chris Brandt and Matt Gaertner (WestEd), Peter Zutz (Nevada), and Dan Farley (Oregon)

Summary: In response to the Testing Action Plan (released in 2015), states have improved their test development processes, introduced technological enhancements, and implemented more efficient test methods to improve assessment quality and efficiency. States have also recently begun conducting inventories of their assessment systems to examine the alignment between assessments and content standards, identify inefficiencies resulting from assessments with overlapping purposes, and measure the usefulness of results reported to school stakeholders. This NCSA session described a comprehensive and rigorous approach for conducting assessment inventories; presented key findings and lessons learned from the two states that conducted audits; and described how these states addressed cultural, procedural, and political challenges related to implementing audit recommendations and, ultimately, to improving their assessment systems.

Using Assessment Data: Learning from Tennessee’s Grade 2 Assessments
Presenters: Joanne Jensen (WestEd) and Sandy S. Qualls (Tennessee)

Summary: Tennessee has developed a standards-based summative assessment at grade 2; approximately 60 percent of their districts volunteer to administer the assessment. These assessments include items not typically found on statewide summative tests, including reading fluency and listening sentences and paragraphs. These measures help provide evidence of some pre-cursor skills necessary for later achievement. This roundtable focused on how the English language arts and mathematics assessments were designed to provide information to teachers and instructional leaders at the school, district, and state levels through sharing of the test blueprints and item types. Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) staff shared sample reports at the student, class, school, and district levels and explained how they are used to support instructional change. In addition, TDOE staff explained how they use their practice test and released test items to signal their expectations for student achievement.

Multiple Pathways to Assessment Innovation: Diverse Approaches from Three States
Matt Gaertner from WestEd served as a discussant and staff from three states presented their assessment model.
Presenters: Matt Jones (Georgia), Peter Zutz (N