The number of low-performing schools has drastically increased since COVID-19. During the 2018-2019 school year, there were 488 low-performing schools (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2024). The number increased to 736 schools during the 2023- 2024 school year, a 50.8% increase (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction,…

Faculty engagement in assessment processes is critical but remains limited, especially in public doctoral research universities. In this article, we propose an engaged assessment model that emerged from our work at a leading doctoral university. Through the engaged assessment process, faculty members are involved throughout, centering on student…

Measuring educational opportunity is a topic of interest to policymakers and education stakeholders alike. Standardized assessments of student achievement are commonly used to measure educational opportunity in North Carolina and across the nation. This research brief examines two measures of educational opportunity in North Carolina public school…

States use their accountability systems to identify low-performing schools, which can receive added support and are expected to improve. Alternative schools serve students whose needs are not met in a regular school. They often serve at-risk students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. Given this unique population, the Government…

The Public School Forum's Top Education Issues outlines the Forum's priorities on what should be at the forefront of education policy decision-making each legislative biennium, as the Forum works toward eliminating the systemic racism and inequities that exist and are visible throughout the educational system. The Top Education Issues publications…

Throughout every region of North Carolina, leaders of organizations in all fields -- business, education, government, community, faith-based, and others -- agree that the future prosperity and well-being of the state's citizens requires successfully educating all of its children. That means effectively supporting children of every race and…

A standards-based model of reform has dominated public education for 30 years. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), it will continue to dominate education policy. Is that model working? State boards of education share an intrinsic interest in this question. While there are many ways to investigate it, one approach that shows promise treats…

Using administrative longitudinal data from five states, we study how value-added measures of teacher performance are affected by changes in state standards and assessments. We first document the stability of teachers' value-added rankings during transitions to new standard and assessment regimes and compare our findings to stability during stable…

Although debate about the adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been extensive, there is unanimity on the importance of college and career readiness standards. If statewide assessments are not aligned to the workplace and college requirements of reading and comprehending more complex text, then states will keep…

Since the NC Pre-K (More at Four) Program began in 2001-2002, a variety of statewide evaluation studies have been conducted by the FPG Child Development Institute. These annual evaluations have included several studies of program services, classroom quality, and children's outcomes during pre-k as well as longer-term into kindergarten and third…

In 2007, every district in North Carolina received access to EVAAS (Education Valued-Added Assessment System), a statistical tool designed to give principals a resource to make strong instructional decisions for their schools. The use of EVAAS has now worked its way into state law and its use is mandated in teacher evaluation. However, EVAAS is…

As the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is implemented, the Center on Standards and Assessment Implementation (CSAI) has received queries regarding accountability requirements, particularly in regard to reporting data for subgroups of students. CSAI recently sought to answer this latter question by reviewing the ESSA. Additionally, CSAI reviewed…

States with an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) that received a flexibility waiver from some of the requirements of No Child Left Behind are required to phase out their use of this assessment. And, on August 23, 2013, the U.S. Department of Education published a proposed rollback of regulation that allowed the…

The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program, authorized by Congress in 2011, is designed to improve the quality of early learning and development programs for children from birth through age 5. This discretionary grant program is administered jointly by the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services…

Federal policy initiatives such as the flexibility waivers for accountability are requiring that states transition away from the use of an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). It is expected that those students who had participated in that assessment will instead participate in the state's general assessment (or a…