Assessment and Accountability

Overview

The Assessment and Accountability section provides products and services in the areas of assessment instruments and accountability measures for workforce education and training and alternative assessments for academic education (funded separately). The section houses the Mississippi Assessment Center and is organized with a coordinator, project manager, assessment specialists, distribution specialist, and intermittent staff.

The coordinator serves as the liaison between the RCU and the sponsoring agencies, local education agencies, and/or business and industry and plans, develops, coordinates, and evaluates the activities of the section. She determines the scope and design of the assessment instruments, accountability measures, and reporting in alignment with workforce education/training and academic curriculum and conducts statistical analysis and data mining techniques aligned with Total Quality Management. She develops policies and procedures used in conducting and administering all section activities. She supervises the project manager, specialists, and intermittent staff and provides oversight of all products and services. The coordinator’s role will include a more focused effort on obtaining funding from external sources dedicated to workforce education and training as well as developing stronger partnerships with like-minded research and service entities and governmental agencies.

The assessment project manager oversees the workflow of all products and services ensuring timelines are reasonable and deadlines are met. She assists the Coordinator in the development of reporting systems and analysis of testing data. The project manager also designs and delivers training related to assessment and accountability when needed.

The assessment specialists are responsible for the development and maintenance of high-quality testing banks. They work closely with the instructional design specialists (IDS) for Workforce Education and selected writing teams of educators to build assessments based on a blueprint aligned to workforce education and training curricula. They also design and deliver training related to assessment and accountability when needed.

The distribution specialist is responsible for overseeing all dissemination of assessment instruments and supplements as well as scoring completed tests. She also assists in the maintenance of testing banks and delivery of training related to assessment and accountability when needed. She serves as the frontline communication for school districts with test administration inquiries.

The Assessment and Accountability section works in collaboration with the IDS for the development of balanced curricula and assessments. This section also works closely with the Mississippi Department of Education’s Office of Vocational Education and Workforce Development and the State Board for Community and Junior Colleges for collection and analysis of testing data required for Perkins IV reporting.