Take It Off the Consent Agenda: Nine Questions State Boards of Education Should Ask about State Assessment Systems

Over the next 18 months, states will be making major decisions about their state assessment system. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states important flexibility in how and when to assess students, and which types of tests to use. State boards of education have the primary authority to make these calls in 31 states.

“Regardless of the extent  of their authority, state boards play a significant role in the development and adoption of coherent, balanced statewide assessment systems, including summative tests,” argue NASBE Executive Director Kristen Amundson, and Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Innovation in Education in Take It Off the Consent Agenda. They urge comprehensive state board involvement in the development of state assessment systems and lay out nine big questions board members should address before they adopt a new state assessment system.