Our country’s K12 academic summative assessment systems are overdue for an update. A handful of states are out front, rolling out innovative—in some cases, truly ground-breaking—methods of assessing student outcomes and school quality. Other states are likely to follow soon, encouraged by federal grant opportunities designed to incentivize new approaches to school assessment.
At Education First, we’ve supported 15 states over the last four years to consider, select and develop new summative assessment innovations in English language arts (ELA), mathematics, science and social studies, as well as newer measures of student success such as high school graduate profiles. We’re increasingly convinced that the most-promising innovations fall under a broad label that we refer to as “through-year assessment.” Several of our state partners have captured national attention for their field-leading approaches to through-year assessment. Others are deep in the work, discovering insights and posing questions that have yet to be shared broadly.
In this report, we share insights from leading states pursuing through-year assessments and recommendations to other states to emulate their early successes. Our goal: Facilitate learning across the country and help education leaders arrive at a clearer understanding of the specific design decisions that will make the most of through-year assessment models’ promise.
