Innovations in Assessment

A Pilot Year in Review: What Have We Learned about Through-Year Assessments?

Key takeaways from through-year assessment pilots

This publication interrogates key takeaways from through-year assessment pilots administered during the 2022-2023 school year. We explore key design decisions, enabling conditions and implications for future research and practice. This publication is part of a series published through Education First’s Through-year Curriculum-Connected Assessment Grant Program.

Publications

The following publications detail what we have learned about through-year assessments from 8 states who tested different versions of through-year assessments models in the 2022-2023 school year.

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  Executive Summary

  A brief overview Ed First’s methodology, key findings and implications for the field.
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  Full Report

  Detailed findings about key design decisions, enabling conditions and implications for future research and practice from 8 states piloting through-year assessments.
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  Why Through-Year Assessments?

  A deep dive into the research supporting the why behind through-year assessments, and the potential benefits, tensions and ongoing issues in various through-year assessment models.
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  Lessons Learned

  A deep dive into what these 8 states learned about the infrastructure, conditions, resources and capacity required to pilot through-year assessments.
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  Exploring the Models

  A deep dive into the through-year assessment models of three assessment developers and two states Ed First partnered with.