In August 2019, Seek Common Ground established a Measurement, Assessment, and Accountability (MAA) Action Accelerator to impact state- and community-based MAA policies, practices, and/or public opinion. Our Learning Community was comprised of 11 organizations from Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Washington. Projects ranged from developing backgrounders MAA policies for legislative candidates to hosting cafés/parent events to deeper partnerships in communities that have been systemically marginalized from public education.
SCG’s theory of action is that state and local coalitions know their context best: current and emerging issues; hopes, concerns, and priorities of families, students, and educators; who to engage; how to navigate competing demands; and how to organize. This is truer than ever as we enter the pandemic school year— which is why we decided to launch our Measurement, Assessment, and Accountability Phase II Action Accelerator, to center the voices of families and communities in MAA discussions in context of COVID-19.
In MAA Phase II, Seek Common Ground facilitated a Learning Community of six selected organizations to engage in an improvement-science informed process to gather information from school systems and stakeholders to provide policy recommendations on centering equity and focusing on student outcomes for schools, grappling with the challenging circumstances of this unique school year.
This work is supported by the Walton Family Foundation.