The Hub
The K12 Research for Equity Hub
What is The Hub?
The K12 Research for Equity Hub (The Hub) is a multi-year actionable research initiative generating evidence to advance policy dialogue on K12 education accountability and assessment systems. Managed by EduDream, The Hub’s first year (cycle) of research launched in Spring 2022. The Cycle 1 research agenda focused on three areas that explore the potential opportunities, challenges, and policy and equity implications of reimagining the U.S. K12 education assessment and accountability systems. The three focus areas include:
1. Alternative Accountability Models
2. Innovative Assessment Approaches
3. Community Experiences, Efforts and Needs
The focus areas explore opportunities and challenges from different, yet interconnected perspectives to inform policy.
Why The Hub?
For the past 40 years, the standards-based reform (SBR) movement has informed education policy in the United States. Research suggests SBR positively influences student attendance, teacher and administrator responsiveness, and student learning. SBR highlighted racial achievement gaps and began addressing them through federal policy, beginning with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. But the hyper-focus on assessments and accountability had negative and unintended consequences on schools and districts, particularly those primarily serving students who are Black, Latinx, and/or experiencing poverty. Additionally, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to transform our nation’s testing and accountability systems.
Cycle 1 Research
Bellwether led an examination of new through-year testing structures piloted in four states: Delaware, Florida, Nebraska, and Texas. Their project elevates the perspectives of assessment directors, district leaders, and parents regarding how the tests work for students, families, and educators.
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) studied state accountability system implications for English language learners. They examined schools' expectations of English Learners’ language growth in language proficiency and academic content areas. MPI also explores the potential role of opportunity-to-learn indicators for English Learners.
Choice-filled Lives Network's research focused on human-flourishing design principle accountability considerations. They looked into the correlation between human-flourishing design principles and practices in schools and students' well-being and academic success.
Education Analytics studied early warning systems in school accountability systems. Their report focuses on gaining an understanding of how incorporating predictive analytics and measures from early warning systems into school accountability systems is helpful to teachers, school administrators, students, and parents.
Advisory Group Members
Diallo Brooks
Schott Foundation
Gloria Corral
Parent Institute for Quality Education
Lindsay Fryer
Lodestone DC
Michelle Odemwingie
Achievement Network
Jill Zimmerman Pinsky
Watershed Advisors
Research Cycle 2
The Hub’s second research cycle will explore state and local accountability systems' measures of student achievement and school quality, how families and communities understand and use the measures, and how the systems inform school improvement. Furthermore, the research seeks to understand the context and conditions under which alternative accountability systems are developed and used, developed but abandoned, or viewed as unnecessary. The research aims to understand how the federal education policy, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), encourages or impedes the development and use of alternative accountability systems. More coming soon!
Funding
Funding for The Hub is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. Hub research will be conducted in collaboration with EduDream as The Hub’s coordinator and selected research teams. No personnel from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, nor the Walton Family Foundation will participate in the creation of Hub research. The findings and conclusions contained within Hub research deliverables will be those of the authors and will not necessarily reflect the positions and/or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or the Walton Family Foundation.
Reimagining the Future of K12 Assessment and Accountability
The Hub research explores the strengths, limitations, and policy implications of reimagining K12 education assessment and accountability systems that improve student learning experiences, and close student achievement and opportunity gaps.