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Insuring support in other ways are to have the do journal at the end of each week with something they are struggling with in class, at school or personally. This can help develop a relationship. Developing. relationship is important for learning and teaching.

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Another way to insure support is to end each class with a group activity. Having your students work together at the end of each class can help them develop relationships with on another.

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Start the class with ice breakers to get to know your students. Remember what they say to develop a relationship between yourself and your students.

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In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, replaced the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, or NCLB, as the nation's major K-12 education law, continuing that law's focus on increasing the quality of public education. To fulfill this mission, ESSA requires states to measure, report on, and improve public school performance. Given the 14-year gap between ESSA and NCLB, the ways in which the old law measured and improved school quality were no longer useful in improving student outcomes. States began requesting exemptions from the law's more punitive measures in 2011.

NCLB relied heavily upon a pass/fail system to measure school performance based on targets for test scores and graduation rates. ESSA marks a significant shift away from NCLB in a number of areas but none more so than the requirements for how states must hold districts and schools accountable for improving student outcomes. In particular, there are three key shifts in the approach to accountability.

First, ESSA moves beyond NCLB's focus on test scores and graduation rates to a broader view of student and school success by requiring additional indicators and emphasizing the importance of a more holistic approach to accountability. Second, ESSA distributes responsibility for improvement among states, districts, and schools rather than focusing entirely on school-level actions directed by the state. And third, ESSA provides more flexibility at the local level for school improvement, requiring evidence-based strategies rather than the specific interventions of private tutoring and school choice that were mandatory for all struggling schools under the NCLB's school improvement grants program.

The new law's vision for accountability recognizes that states need to build a systemic approach to prepare all students for college and careers-and they must do so quickly. While states are required by law to fully implement their accountability systems in the 2017-18 school year, even more urgently, workforce needs are changing rapidly. According to a recent study by the Center on Education and the Workforce, 99 percent of all jobs created since the market crash of 2008 require at least some postsecondary training. Most students can no longer compete in the economy without advanced training beyond a high school education. Furthermore, while graduation rates on the whole are on the rise and more low-income students and students of color are attending college, their rates of high school and college completion lag behind national totals. If all children are to succeed in college and careers, then states must continue to tackle the persistent gaps in educational attainment for particular groups of students.

However, ESSA's approach is incomplete. Systems built solely for ESSA compliance inform states, districts, schools, and the public of what outcomes students met without explaining why they met them. As a result, states have been building toward more comprehensive accountability systems in recent years. In a 2014 report on next-generation accountability systems, the Center for American Progress reviewed how states were expanding their accountability systems to better support school and district improvement. The report identified five broad categories into which states are organizing their reforms and used those categories to formulate a new concept for accountability. The categories are:

Measuring progress toward college and career readiness

Diagnosing and responding to challenges via school-based quality improvement

State systems of support and intervention

Resource accountability

Professional accountability

Building off of that review, this report describes a comprehensive approach to school accountability that encompasses each of these categories and goes beyond ESSA's vision to help states, districts, and schools understand what led to their results. The report reviews the ESSA accountability requirements; describes a broader vision for student and school success; details a system for process management that fosters systems-level accountability to help states understand how well they are progressing toward that broader vision; and provides considerations that states should keep in mind when building accountability systems.

The report's school accountability approach emphasizes two equally important goals for these new systems: 1) ensuring that accountability systems drive toward equal education opportunities by creating a system for identifying and acting on chronic low performance by particular groups of students and 2) ensuring that accountability systems are broadly framed in order to drive toward a comprehensive conception of student and school success and a culture of continuous improvement rather than just shame and punishment.

In order to achieve these goals, CAP proposes that states think holistically when choosing the data used to measure student, school, and district success, as well as consider carefully how data are used. We suggest that states build two connected components for their system. One component is an ESSA-required system that leads to actions to improve school quality, and the other component is a system that helps states understand what led to those outcomes.

This approach follows CAP's belief-laid out in its 2014 report-that an ideal accountability system is meaningful for all schools when it embeds what ESSA requires within a broader system for driving improvements and supports. This includes a broad set of measures for student success; attention to district-level, not just school-level, accountability; development of systems for supporting schools and districts; improvements in how teachers are trained and supported; and accountability for how resources are allocated.

The Every Student Succeeds Act describes a continuous cycle of reporting student data, issuing school classifications, and using collected data to inform local interventions and supports. (see Figure 1)

As depicted in Figure 1, each of the activities that states undertake play a critical role in an accountability system. Furthermore, there are specific requirements for each of these activities within ESSA.

Student outcome data provides the bedrock for the entire system. ESSA requires that these data drive school classifications and school improvement efforts. In addition, these data provide transparency-or an honest accounting of how well students are doing. To serve each of these purposes, states will use a wider range of long- and short-term outcomes, as well as contextual data about the conditions of learning present in schools and districts, than was required by NCLB. What follows is a brief description of ESSA's requirements for what must be reported and how schools are to be classified and improved.

Data reporting

States must annually and publicly report on how well all of their public school students are performing on the following measures, as well as set goals for the first, second, and fourth indicators.

1. Academic achievement in reading and math for third grade through eighth grade and once in high school

2. High school graduation rate

3. Growth or another academic indicator for elementary and middle schools

4. English language proficiency for English learners only

5. At least one measure of school quality or student success

Additionally, states must collect and report on a new, more varied set of data than the five indicators listed above. These new data provide insights into levels of student engagement and the availability of resources that support broader student learning. These data include access to advanced coursework, exclusionary discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, professional qualifications of educators, per-pupil expenditures, and postsecondary enrollment rates.

School classifications

States must use the five indicators listed above for the 2017-18 school year, and every three years thereafter, to identify a subset of their lowest-performing schools according to the performance goals that states set for the specific indicators listed above.

Collectively, there are five types of low-performing schools, including those receiving ESSA funds under Title I of the law as well as any public schools meeting the criteria listed below.

Comprehensive support and improvement schools, identified once every three years

Lowest-performing: Lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in the state participating in Title I

Low graduation rate: Any public high school with graduation rates less than 67 percent

Chronically low-performing subgroup: Any Title I school previously identified for targeted support and improvement that fails to meet the state's exit criteria after implementing interventions

Targeted support and improvement

Consistently underperforming subgroup: Any school with one or more consistently underperforming subgroups, identified annually

Low-performing subgroup: Any school with one or more subgroups performing at or below the rate of all students in a school that is in the bottom 5 percent of schools statewide; any Title I schools so identified become "chronically low-performing schools" after failing to meet exit criteria

School improvement

Identified schools must implement evidence-based interventions and supports until they meet state-set exit criteria, and districts must support these schools in selecting and implementing the interventions and supports that fit the schools' identified needs. Districts with several identified schools must review resource allocation and address it in the schools' improvement plans. States must also identify additional actions for schools that fail to meet state-set exit criteria.

Because ESSA's school quality and improvement requirements are limited to the above measures, states should consider what a broader vision for school and student success looks like.

College and career readiness is a central policy goal of the Every Student Succeeds Act and a running theme of the law, even though the legislation falls short of defining or even mentioning the term outright. To varying degrees, the requirements for key provisions of the law-including standards, assessments, accountability, school improvement, other student supports, and educator effectiveness-speak to the need to prepare students for advanced training after high school and specifically call for students to receive a "well-rounded education." As a result, the law acts as a broad framework for college and career readiness that states can further define through their implementation of the law. At the same time, states were working to define college and career readiness for several years prior to ESSA being passed.

Definitions of college and career readiness are formal and informal statements on what range of academic knowledge and cognitive and practical strategies states believe that their systems of education should provide to students so that they are successful in college, the workforce, and society. Formal definitions have been codified in various ways, whether through state laws, regulations, or other major policy documents. Informal definitions are not codified specifically but are recorded in documents such as applications for federal funding.

In its review of both formal and informal state definitions of college and career readiness, a 2014 report by the College and Career Readiness and Success Center notes that state definitions mention the following, to varying degree and frequency:

Mastery of core academic content knowledge, including math, reading, writing, science, social studies, and history

Attainment of skills related to critical thinking and problem-solving

Skills related to social emotional learning, collaboration, and communication

Civic and community engagement skills

Regardless of their formality, definitions of college and career readiness can be important drivers of state-level policy. By providing a common understanding of the term, they can promote coherence among the policies and strategies that relate to K-12 education but that reside outside its explicit scope. These policy areas may include but are not limited to a state's health and development, social services, early learning, higher education, and workforce systems.

Furthermore, definitions help these state-level systems determine the most appropriate ways to measure college and career readiness from their own unique perspectives and authority. For example, there are important benchmarks within parent-child interactions in children's early years that affect their lifelong ability to learn. A 1995 study from the University of Kansas showed that higher-income children were exposed to 30 million more words than children from low-income homes. The study also showed later deficits in learning associated with this gap. Given this reality, vocabulary attainment in the early years might be an important measure to collect for both health and early learning systems.

State definitions of college and career readiness can also promote coherence within the K-12 education system, specifically as states develop plans and strategies to implement ESSA. The most obvious example of this is through states' adoption and implementation of academic standards and assessments that align with the knowledge and skills students need to enter credit-bearing coursework in college. To be sure, state adoption of college- and career-readiness standards-such as the Common Core State Standards, as well as their aligned, high-quality assessments-meet this requirement.

Furthermore, states can also address college and career readiness in how they measure and classify school performance. For example, there might be age- or grade-band specific benchmarks that schools and districts should pay attention to, such as vocabulary attainment, and states can collect and report this information. States may not wish to use the entire range of knowledge, skills, and experiences related to college and career readiness in the measures they use to classify school performance, but much of this information can be useful to inform local educational practice within districts, schools, and classrooms.

At the same time, states are already using a number of college- and career-readiness indicators in their school classification systems. Most of these apply to high schools, making the case for learning more about which earlier college- and career-readiness benchmarks are important to track for a student's earlier education and development. For more information on what college- and career-readiness indicators states are currently using to classify school performance, see CAP's "Making the Grade" report.

To create an accountability system that explains not just what outcomes were reached but what decisions led to those outcomes, states should consider measuring the effectiveness of coordination among and between each level of the system: states, districts, and schools.

Designing and measuring effective coordination and interaction between states and districts

Clearly distinguishing who is responsible for ensuring that students are college and career ready; what they are responsible for; and how they are responsible helps each level of the system-states, districts, and schools-use their limited resources to reach a commonly understood goal for student and school success. Likewise, states can support more effective interaction within and between each level of the system when they know who does what in order to ensure effective leveraging of the tools and resources that the state provides.

Any highly functioning system continually audits its resources and reassesses how to allocate them to meet its goals. The same is true for systems of education.

Defining inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes

States, districts, and schools have their own unique resources to contribute to education, which this report refers to as inputs, or the resources that provide a basis for public education. The terms inputs and resources are used synonymously in this report. Inputs include standards, curricula, and course schedules.

Each level of the system has its own process for using these resources, or its own method and timeline for using the inputs. A process includes a state's system for building district capacity to improve school performance.

Outputs are the short-term results, such as student growth rates, and outcomes are the long-term benefits that a public education should deliver, such as proficiency and graduation rates. Outputs and short-term benefits are also used synonymously in this report.

One desired outcome of K-12 education is college and career readiness for all students. However, states' short-term goals-or outputs-for college and career readiness should differ by school and context. Some schools may need more aggressive targets for student growth or for improving how safe and nurtured students feel on campus-commonly referred to as a school's climate-than other schools. On the other hand, the baseline expectations for long-term outcomes should be the same for all schools. This means that over time, all schools should be expected to meet the same long-term targets for proficiency and graduation.

In designing systems of healthy interaction within and between states, districts, and schools, the critical questions states must ask are: What are the reasonable, short-term outcomes that states, districts, and schools can expect? How are these measured and by whom and how often are the results reviewed? States' answers to these questions should inform their development of the metrics, benchmarks, and processes foundational to their accountability systems.

As Figure 2 shows, there should be a direct relationship among inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes within state, district, and school systems, as well as between each of them. For example, a state's academic standards ought to determine the type of curriculum-inputs-and teacher training-processes-that districts provide. Table 1 below shows how states can organize a system of inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes. This organization is meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive.

States have been working toward building comprehensive, next-generation accountability systems that are made up of multiple components, including:

Measuring progress toward college and career readiness

Diagnosing and responding to challenges via school-based quality improvement

State systems of support and intervention

Resource accountability

Professional accountability

Understanding how all of these components fit together within a system of inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes can bring greater clarity to how to operationalize these systems cohesively.

The matrix detailed in Table 1 below shows how such a system can be organized. Note that the list included in Table 1 is not comprehensive enough to represent the entire scope of state work within accountability, but it is a start. States may wish to list additional items on this list that further capture the breadth of their work.

The inputs below are important foundational components of the public education system. It is essential that states effectively manage these inputs internally and deliver them successfully to districts. To do so, states must have the capacity to build and maintain high-quality inputs and effective processes in each of the categories of accountability. A first step toward building this capacity should include an assessment of the current status of inputs and processes, measured against the goal of college and career readiness. For example, states may wish to review the extent to which course curricula reinforce the state's college- and career-readiness standards or conduct a similar review with respect to the state's educator standards and licensure requirements. The goal of this review would be to measure the extent to which a state's inputs and processes will result in the attainment of college and career readiness for all students. The following sections detail how each level of the system can have the greatest effect on student outcomes.

State actions

State governments are far removed from classrooms. Still, state-level processes can and do affect student outcomes. For example, academic standards are a key state-level input that has a major impact at the local level. A critical component of the academic standards adoption life cycle, which includes the development, review, and adoption of academic standards, is also the implementation of those standards. To be effective in teaching students to meet the adopted standards, teachers must receive information about what technical and instructional shifts are necessary to ensure student achievement. While teacher preparation and professional development are not generally thought of as accountability indicators, students are not likely to achieve the standards if teachers and leaders are not adequately prepared to teach them. Therefore, measures of teacher practice can be an important set of metrics for states to collect and review continuously.

In addition to these state-specific functions, states must identify and respond to low capacity and performance at the district level. While it is important that states pay attention to all district practices for teaching and learning, ESSA speaks to some very specific district-level capacities that states must monitor. In particular, these include the capacity of districts to implement evidence-based reforms in schools identified as low performing, as well as their capacity to monitor the distribution of resources when districts have a preponderance of these schools within their districts.

District actions

In many ways, district-level processes can have the greatest impact on student outputs and outcomes. For example, among all in-school factors, research has shown teachers to have the greatest impact on student achievement. Additionally, low-income students and students of color are disproportionately taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers. Districts, not states, control hiring, placement, and professional development processes. Therefore, accountability systems should measure district-level outputs such as equitable distribution of effective teachers and mastery of instructional practice.

In addition, since decisions about the distribution of resources to schools occurs primarily, though not entirely, at the district level, accountability systems should include measures of district-level resource distribution and how well-aligned resources are to student needs.

Districts must also monitor school-level capacity to carry out school functions. Although this monitoring should be broad in scope when capturing matters of teaching and learning, districts must pay special attention to schools identified as low performing to ensure that they carry out implementation of school improvement efforts effectively. Additionally, districts may also want to closely monitor schools not identified for improvement but whose performance indicates that the school is struggling. Paying sufficient attention to schools that are doing well overall is another important function of districts and part of the system of continuous improvement. Understanding the strategies for continuous improvement of schools not identified for improvement is a less understood topic; as a result, CAP is considering developing a resource that describes state and district approaches to supporting these schools.

School actions

Many of the conditions governing school decision-making are beyond the control of school teachers and leaders. However, there are critical areas in which principals and teachers have significant authority to make important changes that positively affect students. For example, there is significant evidence demonstrating that both lowering the rate of expulsion among students of color and establishing a culture of high expectations signaling that all children can and should excel often lead to higher student achievement and graduation rates.

Unlike districts or states, schools are best positioned to establish a positive, inclusive, safe, and nurturing culture and climate. How well school leaders assess personnel and student needs around safety, inclusivity, and high expectations is an important set of metrics to include in an accountability system.

Figure 3 shows a flow chart of inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes in an accountability system. If both inputs and the processes through which they are used are high quality, states can expect to see positive student outcomes. Without high-quality inputs and processes, any positive short- and long-term outcomes will happen sporadically and in spite of the accountability system-not because of it.

Including specific metrics that assess the inputs and outputs of state, district, and school actions is critical to understanding the reasons for short- and long-term outcomes. The next section explores how that information should be collected and reported to ensure that each level's actions are coordinated.

As states consider how to design their processes, they should keep the following considerations in mind.

Anchor the system with goals and expectations

College and career readiness is one desired outcome of the K-12 education system. Defining college and career readiness with a level of specificity makes it easier to identify which inputs and processes at the state, district, and school levels contribute to achieving this goal. The state should also consider articulating additional goals for the system, such as preparing graduates to be effective participants in our democratic government.

In addition, an explicit and agreed-upon definition of college and career readiness is a powerful tool to create cohesion not just within the K-12 education system but also between the other systems that support long-term student success. For example, a state definition of college and career readiness also makes it easier for the state K-12 system to engage with the labor and higher education systems to create a more efficient network of college and career pathways.

In addition to student outcomes, there may be other critical goals for a school accountability system to achieve, such as fair and effective distribution of inputs. States could also set goals for the delivery and distribution of resources to districts and schools.

Clearly stating the goals for the system and aligning accountability metrics to those goals creates an important north star for which all actors within the system should aim.

Use data to monitor the health of the system

Tracking inputs and processes can provide states with essential contextual information. This information can give states critical intelligence that can help them anticipate or diagnose problems and facilitate problem-solving.

States may wish to understand how well-aligned inputs are to student needs and how inputs are used by districts and schools to address student needs. This type of data can also be critical to collect and review at the district and school levels.

However, in order for educators and policymakers to be candid about how well a system of inputs and processes is working, states ought to think carefully about what, if any, stakes are attached to the results. How that information is acted upon should foster a spirit of continuous improvement.

Define what quality inputs and processes look like

Low-quality inputs will likely result in low-quality outcomes. Therefore, states ought to spend time defining what high-quality inputs look like. For example, states may define a high-quality data system as one that tracks K-12, postsecondary, and workforce outcomes for all students.

Likewise, low-quality processes will likely lead to low-quality outcomes. It may be useful for states to describe the elements, listed below, of a high-quality process according to the literature on general process design:

Consistency: States communicate to districts and school exactly what to expect in a timely manner.

Quality: Inputs and processes meet the needs of districts and schools.

Efficiency: Processes aim to minimize cost.

Effectiveness: Processes satisfy the goal of college and career readiness for all students.

Developing this level of clarity ought to be a collaborative effort among states, districts, and schools, as the latter two can provide critical local, contextual information not readily available to states about the types of inputs and processes that meet local needs. When inputs or processes fail to meet standards of high quality, states, districts, and schools can course correct.

Each of these considerations applies equally to the horizontal and vertical relationships between the inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes.

Another factor critical in the design of an accountability system is how state-level indicators identify schools most needing support, as well as drive behavior at the district and school levels.

Considerations for indicators that classify school performance

Regular measurement and reporting keeps schools and districts focused on what actions to take to improve performance. As described in the overview of the Every Student Succeeds Act, classifying school performance carries specific and enhanced consequences for schools identified as low performing. These schools must implement evidence-based interventions and must exit low-performing status within state-set timelines. Given this reality, states should take special care when selecting indicators that they will use to classify schools. ESSA requires indicators to be valid-or measure what they purport to measure; reliable-measure a specific result consistently over time; and comparable-measure the same element of performance across different schools.

When selecting indicators to classify schools into categories, states should also examine three additional characteristics for each indicator: differentiation between schools, relationship to key student outcomes, and ability to drive behavior. Based on these characteristics, states can then determine the most appropriate way to use them in the system-for example, in classification of schools, public reporting, or needs assessment and improvement planning-as well as the appropriate level-state, district, or school-at which to use them.

States could consider indicators that do not meet these three characteristics or that are otherwise not technically valid, reliable, and comparable across schools for other purposes in their accountability system but should not use them to classify schools.

Meaningful differentiation of school quality and performance

Generally, indicators used to classify schools for intervention purposes should distinguish performance between schools. Meaningful differentiation helps states prioritize which schools need the most support in improving and helps parents understand how their children's school measures up to others.

As a result, states should analyze whether similar types of indicators differentiate more effectively than others. For example, if schools cluster around a value or range of values on a particular indicator, this indicator may not provide useful information to distinguish school performance. Meaningful differentiation would likely show performance across a range of values, showing performance at the bottom, middle, and top of the performance spectrum.

Historically, indicators including academic proficiency rates and graduation rates have widely varying performance from school to school, while indicators such as attendance rates typically have the same performance across all schools. In contrast, looking at chronic absenteeism would likely identify outliers in terms of performance. Also, while states are required to measure academic proficiency indicators-which are static, point-in-time indicators within their school classification systems-there may be an opportunity to measure specific aspects of proficiency data, such as growth or scale scores, which are further described below. That is, ESSA may provide states an opportunity to use differentiation within an indicator, as well as differentiation between schools.

The use and importance of scale scores in reporting standardized test results

There are three different ways to report scores on standardized tests. The first is through a raw score, which is a sum total of points based on correct answers. The second is through a percentage-correct score. The third is a scale score. Scale scores transform raw scores into a different set of values and are necessary because states often develop different editions of the same standardized test. Different test editions help prevent cheating but can make comparing scores challenging. Scaled scores ensure that scores on different editions of the same test mean the same thing and can be compared.

While differentiating between school performance is important, indicators that do not differentiate well might still be useful for school classification if they send critical signals about what is important and what schools should focus on. For example, nearly every school has high attendance rates, so this indicator does not differentiate among school performance. However, states may still be interested in attendance data and may wish to measure rates of chronic absenteeism, or the number of students who miss 10 or more days of school in a year. Schools would perform well on this measure if they reduce rates of chronic absenteeism, and states could focus their attention on schools not reducing these rates.

For indicators used to inform decision-making at the district or school level, and not used to classify schools at the state level, differentiation of schools is less important. What matters more to districts and schools is that teachers and school leaders can act on the data.

Actionable data may not meet the technical standards required by ESSA but are useful in informing practice. Examples of this type of data include measures of social and emotional learning, or SEL, which are the skills and abilities that provide a foundation for lifelong learning and development. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning describes five core competencies that make up SEL. These are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. While there are existing assessments that measure aspects of SEL for particular groups of students, none of these assessments' purpose is to hold schools accountable for students' SEL. Nonetheless, providing local educators with insights into how well students are developing their SEL can be useful to inform instructional practice.

Relationship to key student outcome measures

The flexibility to include nonacademic indicators, such as chronic absenteeism in school classification systems, provides an opportunity for states to identify indicators that provide unique and useful information about a school's performance and key student outcomes. For example, states should include indicators that have a strong correlation with particular outcomes-including proficiency or graduation rates-but including too many of these can be redundant. On the other hand, another indicator might be so weakly correlated that it may have little or no relationship to critical student outcomes. As a result, states would not want schools to focus on this indicator. Ideally, indicators used for classification purposes would have a moderate to strong relationship with key student outcome measures, particularly long-term outcome measures such as college completion rates.

However, some indicators have weaker relationships with long-term outcomes but still provide useful information at the district and school levels that local educators can act upon. Indicators are particularly actionable when they can inform real-time decision-making for district or school resource allocation or another aspect of educational practice. Growth data that comes from assessments administered during the school year, for example, can help educators adjust their instructional practice throughout the year.

Indicators that drive behavior

Indicators used to classify schools should drive the kind of behavior that states want to see at the district and school levels. That is, these indicators should support schools in taking actions focused on the advancement of a state's goals.

An indicator may not have strong relationships with student outcomes or provide meaningful differentiation between school performance but still provide value in a school classification system, particularly if that indicator signals what a state values and drives behavior that states want to see at the district and school levels. For example, parent engagement, as measured by survey responses, may not be correlated with student outcomes or differentiate among school performance but is an activity that the state wishes that schools would emphasize.

In this case, it will be important for a state to describe and be transparent about what value the indicator represents in cases where that is unclear and what action districts and schools should take based on school performance on that indicator.

Some indicators may not have all three characteristics shown in Figure 4, above. To maximize the value that they provide to policymakers, administrators, and educators, however, indicators used to classify school performance would ideally share all three. As a result, when making decisions about what indicators to use for school classification, states should analyze the extent to which possible indicators have one or more of these characteristics.

Accountability systems should drive continuous improvement toward making college and career readiness a reality for all students. To do so, states must build accountability systems that exceed ESSA's requirements and focus on coherence within the entire system-from schools to districts to state educational agencies. CAP's accountability framework calls for states to continuously monitor resources provided to districts and schools and ensure that they have the capacity to use them effectively. As a result, states will set goals and monitor progress against key functions such as training and support of teachers, as well as the distribution of financial and material resources. Finally, states should think through their mechanisms to support districts to use all of these resources effectively, while districts should pay attention to building school capacity.

Laura Jimenez is the Director of Standards and Accountability for the K-12 Education Policy team at the Center for American Progress.

Scott Sargrad is the Managing Director for the K-12 Education Policy team at the Center.

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A New Vision for School Accountability - Center for American Progress

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In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, replaced the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, or NCLB, as the nation's major K-12 education law, continuing that law's focus on increasing the quality of public education. To fulfill this mission, ESSA requires states to measure, report on, and improve public school performance.

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As the mission of the Office of Charter Schools is to improve the quality of education or children in the City of Milwaukee, the academic and behavioral growth and achievement of the students in the schools that we authorize is extremely important. To this end, the Office requires all schools to participate in three assessments.

Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS)

Through the 2013-14 school year, public schools in Wisconsin administered the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE) to students in grades three through eight and ten in the Fall. All students completed Reading and Mathematics assessments, with fourth, eighth, and tenth grade students additionally taking assessments in Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.

In 2014-15, all public schools in Wisconsin administered the Badger Exam to students in grades three through eight in the Spring. Students were assessed in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics.

In the 2015-16 school year, all public schools in Wisconsin will administer the Wisconsin Forward Exam to students in grades three through eight in the Spring. All students will complete English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics assessments. Fourth and eighth grade students will also complete a Science assessment and fourth, eighth, and tenth grade students will also complete a Social Studies assessment.

For accountability purposes, starting in 2014-15, students in grade eleven were all assessed with the ACT Plus Writing exam in Reading, English, Mathematics, Science, and Writing. The Wisconsin DPI developed a method to combine the Reading, English, and Writing scores to create an English Language Arts (ELA) score.

A very small percentage of students with severe cognitive disabilities take the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) assessments instead of the assessments mentioned above.

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)

An assessment developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association of Portland, Oregon that measures academic growth in reading, mathematics, language, and science three times a year (September - January - May).

Student, Parent, and Staff Satisfaction Surveys

Surveys developed by the Office of Charter Schools. The student survey asks students to rate the school on safety and discipline, learning opportunities, friendship and respect, care provided by the staff, and expectations and success. The parent survey asks parents to rate the school on expectations, communications, and results. The staff survey asks staff to rate the school on leadership, strategic planning, student, stakeholder, and market focus, measurement, analysis, and knowledge management, faculty and staff focus, and process management.

The Office also collects data on other aspects of the school including attendance rates, student mobility, discipline, and other measures that impact student success. Additional data collected at the high school level includes graduation rates and ACT performance. This information can be found in each school's Annual Accountability Report.

Achievement

Proficiency Results for 2016-17

Growth

Meeting or Exceeding Growth Targets

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) is an assessment developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association of Portland, Oregon. Students take MAP assessments in reading, mathematics, language, and science online and their results are immediately available to teachers and schools to help tailor their instruction to what they are ready to learn now and in the near future. In addition, since the assessments are taken three times a year (September - January - May), they can also be used to monitor the academic growth of all students.

Resources are available below for MAP proctors, teachers and administrators, and parents.

Teachers & Administrators

Satisfaction

Satisfaction Survey Results

Annual School Growth Reports

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Accountability Measures - School of Education

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As the mission of the Office of Charter Schools is to improve the quality of education or children in the City of Milwaukee, the academic and behavioral growth and achievement of the students in the schools that we authorize is... Read More

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Do your students give excuses for their poor performance in class? Are excuses like "there was no sufficient time to prepare," "the questions were too tough," "the material was not taught in class," etc. often used in your class? Student accountability is an important trait to develop in your students. It helps them take responsibility for their actions, learning, and helps improve academic performance and achievements.
Introducing student accountability in the classroom
It may not be easy initially to instill this behavior in your students, but with your constant support, students may slowly learn to develop it. Here are some ideas to achieve student accountability in your classroom:

What is student accountability? Few students understand the need to take responsibility for their actions. Therefore, it is essential that you frame rules at the beginning of the year on the actions that are acceptable and unacceptable in the classroom. Unacceptable behavior should have a prescribed consequence (like a time-out) that should be followed closely. The student then decides whether he/she performs the acceptable/ unacceptable task. Understanding this crucial concept will help students take responsibility for their actions.

Be firm with your rules. It is often observed that leniency only encourages students to break rules. When a teacher bends the rules for someone in class, others will expect the same treatment. Failure to comply will lead to complaints of favoritism that adversely affect the dynamics of the class. Thus, following your rules is a good way to instill accountability in your students.

Create a positive environment

Be positive, non judgmental and supportive to the students. Since your students are trying to change their behavior, there may be slip ups initially. Remind the student that every action has a consequence and that it was their choice to face the punishment. You may also have a group system in which students remind and support each other.

Inform parents of the game plan. At times, incorrect or imprecise information is conveyed to the parents. To prevent this and generalize student accountability even outside the class environment, parents should be kept in the loop. If a student misbehaves or fails to turn in the work on time, you can ask the child to call and inform the parents in your presence. Such practices will reduce the incidence of mistakes from occurring and increase the practice of taking responsibility.

Help your students develop a plan to achieve their goals. Instruct them to draw a triangle. At the tip of the triangle, write the goal that needs to be achieved (i.e. improving performance, submitting assignments on time). On the base, write down the steps necessary to achieve the goals. This gives them the opportunity to formulate their own goals and strategies. Writing them down serves as a reminder to the students on their committed to their goals and teachers may encourage them to sign the work and also get it signed by their parents. A copy of this is maintained by both the staff and parents to help the student achieve his/her goals. After two weeks, teachers and students can review the goals to see how much was attained, discuss whether the goals were realistic, figure out changes to the plan or set new goals. Such practices will help students to be proactive in their learning.

Keep an achievement chart

Another way to instill student accountability is to encourage students to evaluate their own work, performance and participation in class. Create an achievement chart that records the various activities and behaviors in class (for example: active involvement in class, academic performance in tests, timely submission of assignments, achievement of goals, etc.). This chart is to be scored by the student daily on a three point scale of 0, 1, and 2 where 2 is good, 1 is average and 0 is bad. At the end of each week, the student adds the score and makes a chart which is a record of their learning. The chart demonstrates how well each student has achieved their objectives of learning and which areas needs more work and effort.

Thus, by teaching students to be accountable for their work and take responsibility for maintaining a level of academic performance, we are encouraging them to be in charge of their own success.
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Discuss Here: What are the methods by which you successfully introduced student accountability in your classroom?

About PLB

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How can I Introduce Student Accountability in Class to Enhance Student Performance?

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Do your students give excuses for their poor performance in class? Are excuses like "there was no sufficient time to prepare," "the questions were too tough," "the material was not taught in class," etc. often used in your class? Student accountability is an important trait to develop in your students.

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Helping Hands: Sharing Classroom Responsibilities (Virtual Tour)

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“Real World” Class Jobs: Sharing Responsibility in the Classroom (Virtual Tour)

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Students complete applications and performance reviews to obtain and keep classroom jobs that match their skills and interests.

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Active Learning Classrooms: Sharing responsibility for learning

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There is no one, clear, universal explanation of how we learn or a subsequent guidebook as to how we should teach. Rather, there are a range of theories, each with their background in a different...

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Understanding Three Key Classroom Management Theories

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Spread the loveBy Tricia Hussung How teachers manage their classrooms is an important part of achieving an effective learning environment. Educators know that all students learn differently, and choosing the right instructional style can mitigate behavioral issues and make good instruction possible.

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Call it "active learning," or "classroom participation" -- every teacher wants to know how to motivate students to particpate, and how to nurture more involved students and fewer apathetic ones. With a little extra planning, that is possible.

Below are four common reasons students don't participate and techniques to solve those problems and spice up your lessons.

Maybe it needs to be repetitive because the students don't really "get it," or maybe you're reviewing for a test. In any case, they're tuning out.

Solution #1: Assess their prior knowledge.

This could be as simple as asking students, "What do you know about (topic)?" and writing their responses on the board. You could also try a pre-test or a graphic organizer like a K-W-L chart . The goal is to find out what they already know (or think they know). You create buy-in for the students because they feel smart, and you can tailor your lesson to the information they don't know or don't remember correctly.

Solution #2: Try skills grouping.

Divide the class into groups based on what skills they need to practice - not forever, but for a class period or two, so they can focus on what they really need help with. So have a group that works on multiplying fractions, one on dividing fractions, and one on converting fractions to decimals. Make a group of "already got 100% on the test" kids and give them an extra credit activity or let them preview the next lesson. Then take time to move between the other groups and help them review. You'll have more students engaged in the lesson and they'll get specific, focused practice time.

Solution #3: Let them teach each other.

Especially good when reviewing before a test: divide the class into groups and give each group a topic. Set some guidelines and then let them teach each other. Encourage them to do interesting activities - write tests for each other, design review games, etc. - and evaluate each group on the accuracy of their content, the creativity of their approach, and how well they work together as a team. This is also a great way to discover how to motivate students.

This is really half the problem. The other half - especially with older students - is their fear of "looking stupid" by asking questions.

Solution #1: Allow anonymous questions.

Put out a "question box" where students can submit questions any time. Give each student an index card and ask them to write something about the reading assignment they did for homework. If they don't have a question, instruct them to write a comment on the reading. Collect the cards and use them to lead a class discussion. You'll easily recognize what parts of the reading confused a lot of students and they won't feel embarrassed.

Solution #2: Allow them to work together.

We can't do this all the time; individual students need to be assessed. Ask yourself: is the goal of this activity for them to learn the content, or for them to be assessed? If you want them to learn the content, why not let them work together? When they bring in their homework, do a quick survey for completeness, then put them in pairs and let them review the homework together. Encourage them to make changes if their partner's answer looks right. When they've finished, review as a class. Students may be less embarrassed to share a group's answer than their own and you may be able to complete the review more quickly.

Solution #3: Try a jigsaw approach.

No, we're not talking about puzzles or scary movies. If you're introducing new, difficult content, divide the class into groups and ask each group to master only one portion of it at a time. If, for example, you're teaching the American Revolution, have one group focus on the Continental Congress, one on Washington's Army, one on French support for the war, and so on.

Ask them to do a reading on their topic - to become the class "experts" on that subject. Then split up the class into new groups that include one "expert" on each topic. Ask these new groups to work together to write an essay or complete a worksheet that requires information about all the topics. They will teach each other in the process. Learn more about the Jigsaw Approach.

Problem: There's too much information to present in too short a time.

Sometimes there's no way around it: you simply have to get a lot of information out there in a short amount of time. So you opt for a lecture and just want your students to absorb the content. Instead, they fall asleep or stare out the window. What can you do?

Solution #1: Keep it "bite-sized."

Remember: research shows the average student's attention span is as long as her age. So even high school kids can only handle about 15 minutes. If you have a lot of information to convey, re-arrange your lesson plans so you never lecture for more than 10-15 minutes.

Break up large concepts into smaller sections - give a brief lecture, then do an activity to help it "sink in." Repeat this process over several days. You'll increase participation - and improve comprehension, too.

Solution #2: Keep them busy.

Don't allow students to stare into space while you talk. Give them something to stay connected. Try "fill in the blank" lecture notes. Delete key words and phrases in your lecture notes to create a "fill in the blank" worksheet. Then ask students to fill in the worksheet while you lecture. Another fun variation - lecture bingo .

Solution #3: Look into the future.

Before a lecture, give students a prediction activity. For example, tell them you will be lecturing on Shakespeare and ask them to predict what you will say, or give them a set of true/false statements and ask them to take their best guess.

As you lecture, instruct students to compare their guesses with what you actually say.

When the lecture is over, have a class discussion and evaluate how accurate student predictions were.

Problem: The lesson emphasizes the teacher, not the students.

Solution #1: Keep them busier than you are.

The traditional classroom of yesteryear had the teacher at the front of the room, droning on while students doze. Re-imagine your classroom as a place where students are busier than you are.

Keep the "sit still and let me talk to you" moments as brief as possible; get those kids working! Give them worksheets, activities, discussions, and projects. That doesn't mean you get to sit around -- you will still be busy, moving from student to student or group to group, correcting, evaluating, or providing feedback. But now everyone is busy and involved.

Homogeneous grouping? Heterogeneous grouping? Tracking? Forget the buzz words: having students work in groups is one of the best ways to increase student participation. Don't keep them in the same groups all the time -give them a chance to be the "smart kid" who can help someone one day and the kid who needs help the next.

Take a traditional worksheet or activity and give it to students in groups. Offer a reward to the group who finishes first with the most answers correct and watch them go! Note: it helps to have additional prizes available to keep groups motivated after the first group "wins." Even high school students enjoy these competitions.

Solution #3: Give them a voice and a choice.

Do students ever get a "say" in your classroom? Of course you need to make most decisions, but there must be some things you could leave up to them - whether it's what color chalk you use today or how long they practice a specific activity.

Kids tune out because they feel like their ideas don't matter. Show them their opinions are important and they'll pay better attention and speak up more in class.

There will always be some unreachable student who won't respond, even with these efforts. But if you give these a try, you may be presently surprised at the previously unreachable students who just might join in!

How do you encourage participation in your class? In what ways did you discover how to motivate students? Share in the comments section!

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top 12 ways to increase student participation

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Top 12 Ways to Increase Student Participation

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Call it "active learning," or "classroom participation" -- every teacher wants to know how to motivate students to particpate, and how to nurture more involved students and fewer apathetic ones. With a little extra planning, that is possible. Below are four common reasons students don't participate and techniques to solve those problems and spice up your lessons.

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Implementing Group Work in the Classroom | Centre for Teaching Excellence

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Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making sk