Center for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Subject Area: English Language Arts

Academic Achievement through Student Agency: Dallas ISD’s Journey

In 2017, Ben Milam Elementary in the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) engaged in structural work to promote agency, equity, and academic achievement for all its students. This work prompted school leaders to ask themselves: How can all students be both learners and leaders at our school? How can students better support and learn from […]

Lessons Learned About Leading the Implementation of Formative Assessment: A Framework for School Leaders and Leadership Teams

When teachers and students share the responsibility for learning, students become active agents in their own learning who respond to feedback, set learning goals, track their progress, and adapt their own learning strategies when needed. Formative assessment provides a clear path forward to this kind of teaching and learning experience, and site leadership is critical […]

WestEd’s Standards‐to‐Standards Alignment and Evaluation Studies

WestEd’s content and assessment experts are available to conduct standards-to-standards alignment studies, which provide: findings to meet rigorous evidence requirements, such as federal peer review guidelines; and key feedback that contributes to quality content standards. This service is available for a range of grade levels and content areas.

WestEd’s Item‐to‐Standards Alignment Studies

WestEd’s content and assessment experts are available to conduct curriculum-to-standards alignment studies, which provide: findings to meet rigorous evidence requirements, such as federal peer review guidelines; and key feedback that contributes to quality assessments. This service is available for a range of grade levels and content areas.

WestEd’s Curriculum‐to‐Standards Alignment Studies

WestEd’s content and assessment experts are available to conduct curriculum-to-standards alignment studies, which provide: findings on the alignment between local curricula and state content standards, and key feedback that contributes to quality standards-based curricula. This service is available for a range of grade levels and content areas.

‘Both and’ Literacy Instruction K-5: A Proposed Paradigm Shift for the Common Core State Standards ELA Classroom

This article proposes a language arts curriculum congruent to the new, English/language arts (ELA) college and career ready standards, particularly to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The idea of behind “‘both and’ literacy instruction” is that all of the following elements are needed for students to form a coherent literacy experience: Foundational literacy practices: […]