Data, Assessments & Accountability
Understanding how well the education system is meeting the needs of students is essential to improving educational outcomes and opportunities. This requires data, assessments, and the ability and willingness to continually improve.
Data – the different types of information collected to support student progress and strengthen our education system.
Assessments – the wide variety of methods or tools used to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students. Assessments can take many forms and be used in different ways.
Accountability – the way the federal, state, or local systems set goals for student learning and system health. This includes measuring progress and supporting interventions towards those goals and publicly communicating progress to stakeholders.
High-quality Data, Assessments, and Accountability Systems are Essential for Student Success
Not too long ago, students of color, students from low-income households, English learners, and students with disabilities — who had long gone systemically underserved in our schools — were invisible, often held to lower expectations, received less resources, and masked behind averages. Parents had no way of knowing how well their schools were serving their children, equity advocates had no way of knowing whether students were getting the necessary learning opportunities and resources, employers had no way of ensuring graduates they hired would be equipped with the right skills for the job, and districts and the state had no significant way of identifying schools that needed help to improve and setting them on a course to do so.
High-quality data, assessments, and accountability systems are essential to equipping our educators and education leaders with the vital information needed to improve educational opportunity and outcomes for all students.
The data elements collected and the way assessments and accountability systems are designed and implemented matter. If these systems do not elevate equity, create the wrong or too many priorities, or set expectations too low or too high, we lose the power that these systems have to drive change.
Dedicated to Continuous Improvement
We continue to advocate for high-quality data to support continuous improvement in the education system in Illinois.
Staff members and partners serve on and support the P-20 Council’s Data, Assessment, and Accountability Committee.
We assisted in the overhaul of the nationally recognized Illinois Report Card, improving its accessibility to parents and educators alike. The report card provides parents and educators with a clear picture of how their students are progressing and educators with key information for supporting student growth.