Publications

This binder is a one-stop tool for protocols, resources, and guiding materials to support school-based design teams in meeting the needs of their school communities. These resources help educators respond to the constraints placed on them by local and state policies and health concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visit the Fall 2020 Back to School Planning Resource Binder

This guide provides educators with a framework for driving equity-focused, innovative school change—along with the tools they need to bring this to life in their own school settings. Our framework aims to bind together the personal learning, process considerations, and design principles that drive sustainable, equitable school change.

Visit the Building for Equity home page
Download the guide

This paper highlights the unique, authentic stories of six micro-credential initiatives, exploring the various approaches to micro-credential implementation at schools across the United States. We interviewed district administrators in Utah, Wisconsin, Florida, Arkansas, and Maryland to investigate effective strategies for using micro-credentials in professional development for educators. As micro-credentials continue to develop on a wider scale, this paper hopes to provide insight into the benefits and challenges surrounding this new model of teacher learning.

In this white paper, learn how the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment (MCIEA) has taken the first steps to build stronger statewide assessments that engage students and determine school success based on multiple, rich criteria. Hear how teachers at an elementary school in Revere, MA made the switch to school-wide implementation of performance assessments, and gain valuable background on the development of MCIEA's School Quality Measures Framework.

Standardized testing remains the predominant proficiency measure for students and schools, placing teacher and student focus on test-prep and lower order skills while maintaining achievement gaps that penalize underserved students. The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Assessment seeks to close this gap and change assessment measures on a state level by training teachers to become leaders in implementing student-centered performance assessments and encouraging state legislators to consider alternative, forward-thinking accountability systems.

This issue is an online supplement to VUE 46, which addressed the topic of performance assessment – a personalized and rigorous alternative to standardized testing that allows teachers to build on individual students’ strengths and foster more equitable learning outcomes.

VUE 47 adds current materials, offers opportunities for additional voices, and provides more examples of performance assessment. Because performance assessment is an active national conversation, the work continues; following VUE 46’s publication, important national conferences and other milestones occurred that we’re able to share here. This issue of VUE was produced as a partnership between the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Center for Collaborative Education.

Against a backdrop of the opportunities provided by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the challenges posed for education by the new federal administration, this issue of Voices in Urban Education (VUE) proposes performance assessment as a personalized and rigorous alternative to standardized testing. Performance assessment provides an opportunity for educators in public schools and districts to more equitably meet the needs of students through the use of more relevant, engaging curriculum and instruction. This VUE issue was planned and produced as a partnership between the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Center for Collaborative Education.