Introducing the Assessment System Review Online Learning Path 2.0

Last month, the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) launched an updated version of the Assessment System Review Online Learning Path (2.0), an online professional learning resource developed in partnership with the Center for Assessment. This version builds on insights from CCEE’s 2024 Balanced Assessment System pilot with three California districts as well as the Center for Assessment’s work nationwide, offering school and district teams more flexible ways to reflect and improve their assessment practices. The learning path equips local educational agencies (LEAs) with tools to determine whether their assessments are providing the right information to the right users at the right time, and where adjustments may be needed. At its heart, this work is about creating coherent, balanced assessment systems that free up valuable instructional time, strengthen decision-making, and ultimately, support student learning.

Bringing Local Assessment Systems into Focus

Central to the learning path is the Assessment System Review Tool, which helps LEA teams see their assessment system in full. Rather than talking about assessments in the abstract, the tool guides teams to map out all the assessments students encounter in a year focusing on one grade level and content area at a time. This process makes it easier to spot patterns, such as redundancies, gaps, or assessments that aren’t serving their intended purpose, and concludes with consolidating insights into a clear set of next steps. The updated 2.0 version offers flexibility in how teams take on this work: as a two-day sprint or as a long-distance run stretched over several months.

The learning path and accompanying tool turns reflection into something concrete and actionable. Districts like Bakersfield City School District, which eliminated redundant district-required assessments, and Coachella Valley Unified School District, which revisited the purpose of their assessments to strengthen alignment, demonstrated the value of this process. Their experiences illustrate how seeing the full picture of the student assessment experience can spark candid conversations about which assessments to keep, replace, eliminate, or add. Both the sprint and long-distance approaches offer distinct advantages but the aim is the same: reduce testing overload, clarify priorities, and ensure assessment data truly supports decision-making so that instructional time is protected and student learning remains at the center.

Resources

• Assessment System Review Online Learning Path (2.0)
• Bakersfield City School District: Eliminating Unnecessary District-Required Assessments
• Coachella Valley Unified School District: Bringing a Fresh Perspective to Assessment Purpose

Highlighting California’s Work at RILS 2025

Next month, CCEE will join the 2025 Reidy Interactive Learning Series (RILS), hosted by the Center for Assessment, as part of a panel featuring three statewide organizations. In this session, leaders will share how their states are supporting districts and educators in moving assessment systems toward greater balance. CCEE’s contribution will spotlight California’s work with the Assessment System Review Online Learning Path and how it equips LEA teams to reflect on their assessment practices, identify priorities, and strengthen alignment across their systems. 

This panel is an opportunity to lift up the work of California districts in addressing common threats to balanced assessment systems, such as issues of efficiency, usefulness, and coherence. The Assessment System Review Online Learning Path helps LEAs tackle challenges such as too much testing and redundancy, inconsistency between assessments and the district’s instructional vision, and assuming all tests can inform instruction. By sharing how districts are working through these challenges, CCEE can demonstrate how the learning path can turn  common pitfalls into opportunities for improvement. Just as importantly, engaging in this national conversation allows CCEE to learn from other states’ approaches, ensuring our supports remain both relevant and responsive while also contributing valuable insights while contributing valuable insights to the broader national dialogue. 
Resources: 2025 Reidy Interactive Learning Series (RILS)

Closing: Why This Matters

The Assessment System Review Online Learning Path is more than a resource—it’s a catalyst for local reflection, collaboration, and improvement. It reflects CCEE’s values of modeling continuous improvement, nurturing curiosity, and embracing innovation by giving LEAs the tools to refine and reimagine their local assessment systems in ways that truly support teaching and learning. Striking the right balance of assessments can drive continuous improvement, supporting ongoing monitoring, informed decision-making, stronger instruction, and greater accountability in addressing equity gaps. With more purposeful data at their fingertips, LEAs can move beyond compliance and use the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) as a genuine strategic plan for equity and improvement. I invite you to explore the learning path, share it with your colleagues, and use it to spark local conversations about how assessments can be leveraged to improve outcomes for every learner.