Supporting Formative Assessment for Deeper Learning: A Primer for Policymakers
This primer argues that effective formative assessment is essential to successfully implementing new college- and career-ready standards. It explains what formative assessment is, how it works in practice, and why it is critically important in fostering powerful pedagogy and 21st-century...
Assessment Literacy Standards: A National Imperative
The purpose of this publication is to increase assessment literacy for policymakers, district and school administrators, teachers, and students. To do so, the authors have created assessment literacy standards for each stakeholder group. Emphasis is on maximizing assessment benefits, reducing ...
Listen to Us: Teacher Views and Voices
This survey, conducted by the Center on Education Policy (CEP), provides insight into teachers’ feelings regarding current education issues and their profession. This national survey of K-12 public school teachers was conducted in the winter of 2015-16. The survey focused on a strategic set of...
Opt Out: An Examination of Issues
During the past few years, media reports have highlighted an increase in the number of parents who are opting their children out of annual state tests, often called the opt-out movement. In this paper, researcher Randy Bennett examines issues related to the movement including: the amount of time...
Moving from Compliance to Agency: What Teachers Need to Make Professional Learning Work
This resource reports on research conducted by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) and Learning Forward. It seeks to uncover the reasons why teachers' experience with professional learning has been generally unhelpful at facilitating their classroom work that impacts...
Testing Action Plan: State and District Profiles
This website page summarizes actions that several states and school districts have taken in order to reduce their amounts of testing, thereby increasing instructional time. In general, those actions include a review of the numbers and estimated time to take tests in a specific state or district,...
Ohio Testing Report and Recommendations
In response to the Ohio Governor and General Assembly 2014 request, the Ohio Department of Education conducted a survey of the number of tests administered to students with the intended goal of reducing the amount of time that students spend on test taking and test preparation activities. The...
Testing Reform Victories 2015: Growing Grassroots Movement Rolls Back Testing Overkill
As its title suggests, the authors of this publication present information related to recent changes in state and district assessment policies. Those issues include: Graduation Test Policies Test-Based Grade Retention Opting Out of Testing Public Opinion about Tests Tests for College Admissions;...