School and District Accountability

Actions state boards can take to ensure the public receive a full picture of the quality of their schools and actionable insight into student learning and mastery of state-defined academic content standards for teachers and administrators.

NASBE Experts

Abigail Potts
Director of Strategic Initiatives and Planning

How a Crisis Can Transform Learning, Teaching, and Assessment

State policymakers should take the opportunity to reimagine their education systems.

Policy Update

States Set Sights on Growth of Low-Performing Students

With the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states can include a student growth indicator as a measure of school quality in their accountability systems. Most of them do. Nine states also saw this as an opportunity and added a separate growth measure for the bottom quartile and quintile of students.

The Standard

Building on State ESSA Plans

After submitting their plans for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2017, states face challenges in ensuring the implementation of their plans keep faith with the spirit of ESSA.

Policy Update

ESSA's Fifth Indicator: A NASBE Policy Update Series

States have incorporated a variety of “fifth indicators” in their ESSA plans, including: career and technical education, school climate and student discipline, social and emotional learning, chronic absenteeism, and access to high-level course work. This policy update series explores the pros and cons of each and offers key considerations for state boards that are refining their plans for September submission.

Policy Update

Flexibility for Streamlining Tests

States can take advantage of existing funding and new ESSA guidance to ensure the quality of their assessment frameworks. This policy update highlights two states—Illinois and Tennessee—that have taken the initiative to evaluate their systems.