$387 Million For Innovative Assessments Available Starting Monday
January 28, 2019
Starting Monday, states will be able to apply for $378 million in competitive funding from the U.S. Dept. of Education to put toward innovative assessments, Alyson Klein reports in Education Week. “As required by the Every Student Succeeds Act, the department is looking to give grants to states that want to do some outside-the-box things, including measuring student growth from different sources. That could allow states to try out things like interim assessments or formative tests, which gauge how students are doing along the way, a shift from the big, summative test at the end of the year.” The application process will incentivize states to develop assessments that align with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s priorities, “beyond what’s required by ESSA.” This includes bonus points for states looking to “develop better literacy tests” and states that “want to improve science, math, engineering, and technology assessments.”