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High School Assessment, Accountability, and Data Systems
Academic accountability and assessment systems have been gaining momentum since the mid-1990s, but all states are now putting into place comprehensive accountability systems as they implement the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Under the act's accountability provisions, states must test students annually on their mastery of academic content standards and produce state and school district report cards that inform parents and communities about state and school progress. Schools that do not make progress must take corrective actions and provide additional services to students.
Nationally, there is strong public support for educational accountability systems.1 Although NCLB currently requires testing during the high school years only in the 10th grade, many states are requiring high school exit exams for increased accountability on the secondary school level.
As a result of new assessments, a wealth of new data regarding student performance is now available. States and districts are working to refine systems of data collection and analysis to inform instruction and curriculum choices. Many educators and analysts have expressed particular interest in tracking longitudinal data for individual students to show academic growth from year to year so that incremental progress can be tracked.
The High School Center provides guidance and support for a variety of groundbreaking as well as practical issues related to assessment, accountability, and data systems at the high school level.
Resources on High School Assessment, Accountability, and Data Systems
Developing Early Warning Systems to Identify Potential High School Dropouts
The following two resources are intended to support educators at all levels of the public school system in building data systems that identify probable high school dropouts before they leave school. (July 2008)
- Developing Early Warning Systems to Identify Potential High School Dropouts [Early Warning System Guide]
This guide discusses the factors that help predict the probability that individual students will eventually drop out of high school prior to graduating and includes step-by-step instructions for building an early warning system. - Early Warning System Tool (Excel file)
This tool allows educators to input student-level data and automatically calculate whether individual students are on track to graduate or at risk of dropping out. (Please maximize the document’s screen in Excel in order to access all the spreadsheet tabs in the tool.)
NCLB and High Schools
This policy brief outlines how NCLB relates to high schools. (August 2006)
Quick Stats Fact Sheet: High Schools in the U.S.
This fact sheet provides information and references on U.S. high school students and high school requirements. (July 2006)
Quick Stats Fact Sheet: High School Students by Region and State
This fact sheet outlines the number of high school students per Regional Comprehensive Center and State. (July 2006)
Achieving a Wealth of Riches: Delivering on the Promise of Data to Transform Teaching and Learning
This policy brief discusses the types of data that teachers need to improve teaching and learning, including data from summative, interim, and formative assessments; and explains the school and district roles in increasing teacher capacity to use these data. It concludes with recommendations for federal policy changes that would promote a common understanding across schools, districts, and states about what supports are needed to use data effectively.
Beating the Odds: Analysis of Student Performance on State Assessments and NAEP
The Council of the Great City Schools has prepared this ninth edition of Beating the Odds to give the nation an in-depth look at how schools in large cities are performing on the academic goals and standards set by the states.
Do Graduation Tests Measure Up? A Closer Look at State High School Exit Exams
This piece from the American Diploma Project presents an in-depth look at high school exit exams to examine how rigorous they are, and how well they align with the knowledge students need to succeed in post-secondary institutions and the workplace.
Measuring What Matters: Creating Longitudinal Data Systems To Improve Student Achievement
The Data Quality Campaign’s survey of all 50 states and the District of Columbia finds that six states have all 10 elements of a comprehensive data system that can track student progress from preschool through college, and 48 states have at least half the elements.
Moving Beyond AYP: High School Performance Indicators
This brief offers recommendations for policy makers for the development and implementation of high school performance indicators. Specifically, it emphasizes the need to revise college- and career-readiness measures and to map adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals to multiple performance indicators. It provides a brief overview of research on a number of high school indicators, such as promotion rates and course success, and includes examples of high school improvement and accountability systems that use multiple indicators. The brief concludes with recommendations for Federal policy changes.
Moving Targets: What it Now Means to Make ‘Adequate Yearly Progress’ Under NCLB
This brief, produced by Education Sector, is an extension of the Education Sector 2007 report, States' Evidence: What It Means to Make 'Adequate Yearly Progress' Under NCLB,which discusses the basics of "making" AYP and the multiple routes schools can take to meet AYP.
State Action 3: Data Governance
This brief from the Data Quality Campaign defines these two aspects of data governance, intra-agency and inter-agency, and provides state examples of each.
State High School Exit Exams: Trends in Test Programs, Alternate Pathways, and Pass Rates
This report, produced by the Center on Education Policy (CEP), draws from CEP’s eight-year study of high school exit exams to identify long-term trends in state policies and student performance. It highlights a growing trend among states to establish alternate pathways to graduation for students who are struggling to pass exit exams.
Student Success: Statewide P-16 Systems
This State Higher Education Executive Officers report describes how state and local leaders from around the United States have developed and implemented successful strategies to increase student achievement in their schools. It also emphasizes the importance of an integrated educational system in obtaining positive student outcomes from preschool to grade 16.
They Can Pass, But Are They College Ready? Using Longitudinal Data to Identify College and Career Readiness Benchmarks on State Assessments
This resource guide from the Data Quality Campaign discusses ways of using longitudinal data to identify college and career readiness benchmarks on state assessments. The guide focuses on data that states must collect and analyze to determine whether students are adequately prepared for college.
Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities
The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) have developed a Tool Kit that provides the most current information -- including research briefs and resources designed to improve instruction, assessment, and accountability -- for students with disabilities that assists state personnel, schools, and families in their efforts to ensure that all students with disabilities receive a quality education.
Use of Education Data at the Local Level: From Accountability to Instructional Improvement
This report by the U.S. Department of Education looks at the integration of education data systems at the district and classroom level and how these systems can be used to improve classroom instruction.
Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making
This IES practice guide offers five recommendations to help educators effectively use data to monitor students’ academic progress and evaluate instructional practices.
1 Education Week. "Reality Check 2002." Available from www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2002/03/06/25realitycheck.h21.html. Posted March 6, 2002.
