1. We’re More Aligned Than We Dare to Admit
To kick off the Forum, we heard five Vision Vignettes outlining key principles for the future of assessment and accountability. These visions were overlapping, complementary and sometimes in tension with each other. They pushed us to consider:
Lessons learned from the past 20 years of accountability policy and how we might balance support and consequences to drive school improvement.
The enabling conditions and guardrails needed to incentivize innovation while maintaining critical quality requirements and protections for students with disabilities and English learners.
Re-centering students, schools and communities and ensuring that student success drives all reform efforts with all resources aligned toward this goal.
updated civil rights principles that ensure data drives equitable decision-making, broaden definitions of success, and reinforce shared responsibility for continuous improvement. The role of state and federal systems in maintaining data and accountability structures that guarantee every student receives a quality education, preparing them with the knowledge and skills needed for postsecondary and career pathways of their choice.
There was broad agreement across all of the visions that were presented that the primary responsibility of schools is to make sure that students are proficient in reading, writing, and mathematics and have the educational foundation they need to thrive, sustain themselves as adults, and contribute to a thriving economy. There was also agreement that students with disabilities, English learners and students experiencing poverty should have the resources they need to succeed. Most believe in the importance of transparency and of bringing data, research, and evidence-based practices to bear as we support students to succeed. And, we all want students to be able to demonstrate what they know and can do and generally agree that this requires multiple ways of capturing learning.
We surveyed attendees at the end of the first day and asked what they believed is the most critical design principle for the future of assessment and accountability. The need for a system with a balance of academic and non-academic measures of success and the shift from a compliance-based system to an improvement-focused system were two of the most prominent themes that emerged. However, the most common response was a system in which decisions are driven effectively and efficiently by timely, transparent, and actionable data and reporting. Some might disagree, but the alignment around a vision and goals is a source of optimism for me. I am aware that the main obstacle right now is not defining our goals but actually putting them into action, which will require ongoing dialogue and teamwork across the industry. However, in this moment of uncertainty, with a new Trump administration likely to reshape federal policy and key elements of the current system, it is critical that we remain focused on our collective north star, ensuring that our progress is not compromised.
2. We Must Stay Focused as We Navigate Federal Policy Shifts
The Trump administration issued dozens of executive orders that had an effect on various aspects of education in the weeks leading up to the Forum. The chance to take a step back, connect with others, build community, and look at both the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for states, school communities, and the field as a whole were well-received by attendees. Here are some of the top considerations that came up throughout the week:
How will states respond? State education agency leaders and state boards of education members from twenty-six states attended the Forum. Discussions about what block granting federal funding (a key Trump administration priority) would mean for assessment and accountability requirements loomed large. Which states would maintain some version of their current systems if federal backstops go away, and, what are the potential opportunities (and risks) for state leadership if given the opportunity to reimagine their systems without federal requirements?
We heard from two state chiefs during our closing keynote, Secretary Katie Jenner of Indiana and Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green of Rhode Island. Both shared a clear-eyed commitment to maintaining their systems of assessment and accountability, data transparency and rigorous expectations for improvement in their states. Will others follow suit?
What will become of data systems, quality and integrity? A few of the key responsibilities of federal education agencies and departments include oversight and compliance of assessment quality through the peer review process; executing and providing guidance to states to meet statutory requirements for accountability, data reporting and school improvement outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act; maintaining longitudinal data systems for the Nation’s Report Card and other national data sets; and, monitoring, responding to and ensuring civil rights violations are remedied, particularly for students with disabilities, English learners and students experiencing poverty.
Work, lessons learned, policy or practice concepts addressing the future of these fundamental federal functions were presented in a number of Forum sessions. For example, one session discussed how states might become responsible for defining and upholding the technical qualities of their summative assessment systems without a federally managed peer review process. What technical requirements, rigor and quality standards will states uphold if given this autonomy? Another session discussed the current capacity needed in states to carry out effective school identification and improvement efforts.
Without enforcement of federal requirements to identify schools according to the performance of specific student groups, how will states maintain transparency and ensure their most vulnerable students are served and receive the education they deserve in all schools?
How might funding priorities shift? What about existing or funded programs? Several attendees at the forum are current recipients of the latest $30 million awarded through the Competitive Grants for State Assessment (CGSA) program. While Congress appropriated these funds, the executive branch retains authority to delay disbursement or enhance oversight. We’ve also seen examples of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recommending reductions or cancellation of these funds.
Three sessions, led by states and their partners, shared their ongoing work that is in prototype, pilot or operational stages and relies heavily on these federal dollars to advance to the next stages in their states. Significant time, effort and resources have gone into launching each of these programs and these states—alongside their vendors and technical assistance partners—have been assessing potential risks to their grants and developing strategies to safeguard their efforts.
My view on these questions is that, if states are poised for additional autonomy, agency and leadership, the work ahead for many of us is ensuring states have the support, capacity and advocacy they need to preserve the critical components in their systems of assessment and accountability:
Ensuring every school provides every student with the highest quality education;
Maintaining data transparency, resource allocation and accountability for improvement;
And, providing students with disabilities, English learners and students experiencing poverty the opportunities they need to succeed.
3. Real Innovation Starts with Proof, Expertise, and Care
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the Forum for me was hearing more than 132 speakers share their insights and lessons learned in 46 sessions. The approach that each of these presenters took to support their ideas with proof points and evidence, drawing on the expertise of students, families, practitioners, and academics, and taking stock of lessons learned in the past to avoid the same pitfalls as they work to improve their products, systems, and policies, was the aspect of their presentations that stood out to me the most. Each session tried to improve data transparency and actionable insights, ensure that policies advance opportunities and learning for every student, struggle with reciprocity and balance between federal, state, and local systems, and uphold the importance of rigorous academic standards and student development, bringing the principles we heard on day one to life. I left with a strong sense that while there is so much work needed to move our field forward, we have a strong foundation in place to build from.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing a National Roadmap for the Future of Assessment and Accountability. In order to move policy, research, measurement, and collaboration across our field forward, this Roadmap will highlight the key insights, ideas, and recommendations that emerged from the forum. In the meantime, we’ve profiled many of the efforts presented at the Forum in our most recent report In Pursuit of Transformation and we’ve catalogued their Forum presentations and materials here. I encourage you to check them out.
In my closing remarks, I shared four words that captured what I felt in that moment: Urgency, purpose, heart and rigor. We must do more than just push for more equitable accountability measures or better assessments to meet the challenges that lie ahead. They require us to step out of our typical ideological bubbles and fundamentally rethink how we define success, how we listen to those most affected by our systems and how we move forward with urgency and purpose. We must do this without lowering the high standards we set for every student in our schools and while remaining open to dialogue, disagreement, and collaboration.
