States Looking to Implement Innovative Assessment Models
July 10, 2019
In Education Dive, Linda Jacobson takes a look at a recent Bellwether Education Partners “State of Assessment” report, which “comes as the federal government is considering applications for a $17.6 million competitive grant program that would support efforts in four to eight states related to these areas,” including improving assessments for EL students and students with disabilities and improving models to measure student growth. These models “would be in addition to the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority pilot program under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which so far includes only New Hampshire and Louisiana.” But the report stresses that the “slow takeoff” of the ESSA pilot program “doesn’t mean other states can’t be innovative and take advantage of ESSA’s increased flexibility.”