Rethinking K-12 Assessment
Beyond the End-of-Year Test: Emerging Models and Policy Trends
In schools across the country, spring is synonymous with testing season. For decades, the end-of-year standardized test has served as the primary measure of what students know. However, in recent years, states and school districts have been exploring alternatives to traditional summative assessments. Earlier this year, EduDream conducted a policy scan to understand how 10 states are designing, piloting, and implementing alternative assessments – which is essential, as they shape the conditions for innovation to succeed or stall. We looked at Montana, Missouri, Louisiana, and Indiana for through-year assessments, and Colorado, Hawai’i, Rhode Island, Nevada, and New Mexico for innovative assessments. In this blog post, we share key learnings for state and district leaders, advocates, and philanthropic organizations to consider as they design, pilot, or scale alternative assessments.
The Case for Alternative Assessments
End-of-year or traditional summative assessments support accountability reporting and system-level comparison. Yet, their timing and format often limit their usefulness to teachers and students. Teachers do not receive traditional assessment results soon enough to inform instructional decisions and re-teaching. This has prompted some states to replace the single summative exam with shorter, yet more frequent assessments administered throughout the school year. Other states are asking students to demonstrate their learning through performance-based tasks such as completing portfolios, capstone projects, presentations, and career pathways.
How States are Designing, Piloting, and Implementing Alternative Assessments
The models examined in this scan varied considerably (see Table 1). Through-year assessments were primarily state-led and focused on English language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8. Innovative assessment models were more varied. They often concentrated at the high school level, with some districts using portfolios, capstones, presentations, and career-connected learning to assess postsecondary readiness. Hawai’i was the only state in the scan to use culturally responsive Hawaiian language testing as an innovative assessment approach.
Alternative Assessments
- Through-Year Assessments (TYA) consist of multiple, distinct tests administered to students throughout a single school year. Ideally, this assessment model provides educators with information sooner to inform instructional decision-making. Another promise of TYA is that by administering shorter, yet more frequent assessments throughout the school year, student testing time will be reduced.
- Innovative assessments aim to provide students with multiple ways to demonstrate learning, prioritize deeper learning, and produce more instructionally useful and locally relevant information. Innovative assessments often include performance-based opportunities to serve as assessment.
Table 1: Comparison of standardized summative testing, through-year and innovative assessment.
Through-Year Assessment Learnings
• Through-Year assessment models were primarily supported by state-level education codes and statutes; therefore, TYAs replaced traditional assessments as the statewide exams.
• Most states with TYAs have completed pilot programs, with statewide implementation beginning fairly recently. TYAs in Montana, Louisiana, and Indiana were operational statewide during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 SYs. For states with recently implemented TYA models, using assessment results for accountability purposes is fairly new.
Innovative Assessment Learnings
• Innovative assessment models were backed by a wide range of state policies, including state-level statutes, consolidated ESSA plans, education bills, and regulations that supported flexible assessment approaches, including competency-based, performance-based, and culturally responsive models.
• Apart from Hawai’i, very few states mandated innovative assessment models as statewide exams. Some states, such as Colorado and Rhode Island, permitted innovative assessment models as options to meet educational standards or high school graduation requirements.
While both these approaches seek to improve traditional testing, they operate differently. Through-year assessments tend to remain embedded in statewide accountability systems, leaving districts with little room to adapt them locally. On the other hand, innovative assessments often give districts greater flexibility; however, they place more responsibility on local leaders and educators to design and sustain the implementation.
Policy Context
The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows a state education agency (SEA) or a consortium of SEAs to apply for approval to pilot an innovative assessment system and use it for accountability purposes.1 Known more formally in ESSA policy as “demonstration authority,” the goals are to help states foster and scale high-quality, innovative assessments. This demonstration authority eventually became known as the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) program,2 which encourages states to “establish, operate, and evaluate an innovative assessment system, including for use in statewide accountability systems.”3
Key Policy Trends Identified in Our Scan
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- A noticeable political divide emerged among states included in our review, with most TYA models being developed in right-leaning states and most innovative assessments taking place in left-leaning states.4
- IADA participation has declined in recent years; Missouri was the only state that applied and was approved to participate in the IADA in 2025. Findings from our review of innovative assessments indicate that states that withdrew from the IADA – such as Georgia and New Hampshire – reported challenges aligning their models with federal accountability requirements.5
- Most states in our scan that participated in the IADA later transitioned to implementing Through-Year models.6 Notably, Hawai’i is the only state in our scan currently pursuing innovative assessment models, including the Hawai’i Comprehensive Assessment Program (HICAP). The U.S. Department of Education denied Hawai‘i’s IADA application, citing insufficient integration of HICAP’s classroom-based assessment component into statewide assessment and accountability systems.7
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- Department of Education. (2016). Every Student Succeeds-Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority.
- States or state consortia receive no new federal funding under IADA. However, they may use funds from other federal grant programs or apply for new funds to support the development and piloting of a new assessment system.
- IBID.
- Dione, E.J., & Keeney, M. (2025). What the Nation Told us in 2024, State by State. Brookings.
- See U.S. Department of Education IADA Intent to Withdraw letters from Georgia and New Hampshire.
- Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, and Hawai’i were the states included in our scan that participated in IADA.
- Brogan F.T. (2020). United States Department of Education Response to Hawai’i’s Revised IADA Application.
