Developing next-generation assessment, accountability, and school conditions systems that drive local improvement and allow leaders to declutter and focus.
We believe assessments can provide more actionable insights, that school conditions data can help school systems focus their improvement efforts and that accountability systems need to direct resources and attention to students and schools that need help. That’s why we are providing these free resources and hosting the National Forum on the Future of Assessment & Accountability.
Today, educators have too much data and too few actionable insights. Schools, districts and states give too many tests, many of which are incoherent with curriculum, and the results come too late to be instructionally useful. We help states and districts develop and implement assessment systems more closely connected to curriculum and instruction, with a focus on how results will be used and reported. This results in fewer, higher quality assessments that deliver meaningful, coherent and actionable data.
Our assessment inventory guide is designed to help districts take the first steps to create a more coherent and streamlined assessment strategy with the goal of reducing the overall testing burden while ensuring that the remaining assessments provide actionable insights.
Access the Inventory Guide
Through-year assessment models administer multiple tests throughout the school year to produce a single summative score meeting federal and state accountability requirements. This toolkit shows states how to take advantage of the power of through-year assessments.
Through-Year Assessment Toolkit
This video shares an overview of through-year assessments and examples of how states are approaching their use.
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States such as Indiana, Montana and North Carolina are showing how through-year assessment models can improve instruction while not dictating local curricular choices
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Accountability systems attempt to identify successful schools, but traditional measurement fails to consider how the conditions within a school can affect student performance-positively or negatively. Our definitions of school quality and success should be expanded to include leading indicators that are correlated with improved student outcomes. Education First can help states and districts identify which school conditions indicators are most important for your own context–and the tools to measure them.
What makes a school a great place for students to learn and grow? It’s not just about the content of their classes or their teachers—though these are fundamental. It’s also about things like school safety, sense of belonging, effective programming, quality of school leadership and student’s perceptions of teaching. These are all part of what Education First calls “school conditions” that affect the school learning environment.
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School conditions play a large role in shaping students’ learning and experiences. Download this brief to learn about the evidence base for various school conditions indicators.
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Since 2019, Education First has convened practitioners, researchers and field leaders to develop a framework for advancing equitable design and practice in assessment. We have been working to document examples of what co-created, holistic and equitable assessments and assessment systems look like in practice to support district practitioners, educators and system leaders.
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The KIPP CARE 360 Assessment tool is a new, student-centered, multiple measures approach to assessing school quality. It includes qualitative and quantitative evidence of joyful and healthy school environments across four major domains: empathic interactions, equitable and anti-racist policies and practices, mental health and physical well-being, and culturally responsive pedagogy. By flipping the script, KIPP traded suspension and dropout rates for quantifiable positive outcomes.
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Today’s accountability systems are failing to consistently reduce disparities and improve student outcomes. The systems need to direct substantial resources and capacity-building to low-performing schools. We help states and districts develop updated accountability systems that value state and local goals, priorities and contexts while meeting federal requirements. We’ll help you identify meaningful measures, facilitate actionable dialogue among stakeholders and set accountability goals that are clear, challenging, achievable and measurable.
Effective accountability systems are transparent, robust, inclusive, actionable and credible. Education First works with states, school districts and charter schools to design such systems.
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Accountability systems are at their strongest when the communities that schools are a part of see the system as central to efforts to build meaningful learning experiences, environments, and outcomes for young people. The purpose of this discussion guide is to support leaders in anticipating the critical questions, discussions and considerations to keep in mind throughout the process of redesigning an accountability system.
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In an era when contention and division seem the norm, Colorado education leaders from across the state- and representing a wide range of viewpoints- have come together to agree on recommendations to improve how the state holds schools accountable for serving all students. Education First had the privilege to facilitate this unique and powerful group: a task force appointed by elected Democrats and Republicans, each bringing their perspectives and passions to the table.
Read Bridging the Divide
In late 2022, Indiana unveiled a comprehensive performance dashboard that measures student outcomes in multiple ways. In this video, Education First shows how using a wider range of measures to better understand whether students are on track and gaining needed skills for success after high school could improve school accountability systems.
Watch the VideoEvery district is unique—considering various solutions at different stages. Providing us with your contact information allows us to understand where you are so you can get the resources and solutions that meet your needs.
